Second Supper, Issue 110

FREE VOL. 8 ISSUE 110 April 3, 2008

Can digital music make money?

Plus an epic Q&A with ZAC HANSON

SHOOTE S

305 Pearl St. Downtown La Crosse Publisher: Mike Keith

mike.keith@secondsupper.com

Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief: Adam Bissen

2008

adam.bissen@secondsupper.com

Managing Editor/Art Director: Joel Kuennen joel.kuennen@secondsupper.com

Tickets: $15 Advance | $20 Gate - All You Care To Drink - Live Music - Silent Auction 3 to 6 -

Copy Editor: Briana Rupel

copyeditor@secondsupper.com

Student Editor: Ben Clark

benjamin.clark@secondsupper.com

Photo Editor: Kelly Morrison

kelly.morrison@secondsupper.com

Contributers:

FEATURING

LA CROSSE Tim Bavlnka Adam Bissen Scott Brown Nicholas Cabreza

Benjamin Clark Erin Ceiling Brett Emerson Emily Faeth Katie Hansen

Geoff Johnson Joel Kuennen Kelly Morrison Maria Pint Briana Rupel

Noah Singer Matt Wolf WINONA Ingrid Alm

Business Staff General Manager: Geoff Johnson

geoff.johnson@secondsupper.com

Sales Manager: Justin Plant

justin.plant@secondsupper.com

Sales Associates:

Tickets Available At: Shooters | The Arterial | Hooters Coconut Joes | Ringside | Legends Bluemoon | Animal House | WC’s Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

Blake Auler-Murphy Tom Pangborn 5,000 Second Suppers can be found weekly in over 300 locations in La Crosse, WI Winona,MN and Decorah, IA Exercise your wit

www.secondsupper.com 2

Dave's Guitar Ă• Shop

The biggest little guitar shop in the world page 6

In the Studio

with Natural Recordings Page 7

Q&A with Zac Hanson Pages 8-9

Deaf Ear defies the Digital Wave Page 12

WIN!

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March 27, 2008

the top

Best lot scene 1. Grateful Dead 2. Jimmy Buffett 3. Phish 4. College football 5. Pearl Jam 6. NASCAR 7. Poison Hunter S. Thompson books

Best-selling singles of all time, worldwide 1. "Candle In The Wind '97" - Elton John (37 million) 2. "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby (30m) 3. "Rock Around The Clock" - Bill Haley and His Comets (17m) 4. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles (12m) 5. "Hey Jude" - The Beatles (10m) 6. "It's Now Or Never" - Elvis Presley (10m) 7. "I Will Always Love You" - Whitney Houston (10m)

'80s Hair Bands 1.

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Whitesnake Mötley Crüe Twisted Sister Quiet Riot Bon Jovi Poison Bullet Boys (see page 13)

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Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream The Rum Diary : A Novel Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie

Best cult drug films 1. Altered States 2. Waking Life 3. SLC Punk 4. Requiem for a Dream 5. Trainspotting 6. Love Liza 7. Drugstore Cowboys

Social Networking Second Supper’s back on the social networking bandwagon this week, with an allnew chain of townies to answer our deliciously revealing questions. Each week, the interviewee will know the person from the week before, and so it shall continue. You see? We really are all connected. If anyone knows Kevin Bacon, drop a line...

NAME & AGE: Carly Petrausky, 24 BIRTHPLACE: Kenosha, Wis. CURRENT JOB: Winona County Habitat for Humanity Restore floor manager DREAM JOB: Showgirl COVETED SUPERPOWER: Time travel to the 1920s DREAM VACATION: Gondola training in Venice BEST LOCAL RESTAURANT: Manny's FAVORITE BAR IN TOWN: Tie between Bodega and Popcorn CITY OR COUNTRY? Not Detroit. No offense.

3 MOVIES YOU’D TAKE ON A DESERTED ISLAND: The Princess Bride Moonstruck Fight Club TELL US A JOKE: Why is six afraid of seven?

Because seven eight nine.

#1 PET PEEVE: Insincerity 3 BOOKS YOU’D TAKE TO PRISON: Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk The Lorax by Dr. Seuss Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 3 CDs YOU’D TAKE ON A ROAD TRIP: Heart - Greatest Hits Richie Havens - Live at The Cellar Door Ugly Casanova - Sharpen Your Teeth IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY INSTRUMENT PERFECTLY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Harmonica or bagpipes WHAT’S IN YOUR POCKETS? cellphone, strawberry kiwi Lip Smackers, purple sequins HOW DO YOU KNOW LAST WEEK’S INTERVIEWEE? I know Nick through Americorps. He replaced me.

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Do this...

WHAT: Ultimate La Crosse 2 WHERE: The La Crosse Center WHEN: Saturday, April 5th, at 8:00 Since the ancient days of Greece, mankind has enjoyed the spectacle that is two men beating each other to a bloody pulp. In my opinion, if it was good enough for the Greeks and the Romans, then it's good enough for us! The La Crosse Center will be holding the WI Fighting Championship for mixed martial arts/ultimate fighting this Saturday. MMA/ ultimate fighting have gained notoriety over the past few years as being one of the most extreme forms of combat one can engage in. Tickets will be available at the box office starting at 3:00 p.m., and will be within the price range of $26.50 $51.50. The doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the main event will begin at 8:00. So come on down and enjoy the mayhem this Saturday night at the La Crosse Center!

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When Pigs Fly

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Dunks Husband in River Wednesday, September 4, 1861 La Crosse Tri-weekly Democrat On Monday afternoon a drunken man rushed from his house on the bank of the river in the lower part of the city, shouting to his wife who was close to his heels, “By ———! I’ll drown myself — hic — I’ll do’er!”

He then waded into the river until the water reached the pit of his stomach, by which time his wife had overtaken him and, seizing hold of his hair, led him back until they reached a place where the water was about two feet deep. At that point she pulled him backwards, dunked his head under, and pulled him up again.

“Drown yourself — (down he went) — leave me to father your brats! (another dunk) — get drunk — (another plunge) — and start for the river! (another dip) — better use water instead of rotgut (another dip and shake of his head) — I’ll learn you to leave me a widow, and all the men away at war!” she exclaimed.

After dunking him to her heart’s content, she led him out, a wetter if not better man, and escorted him to their house and closed the door. As the window to their shanty is very high, we cannot tell what took place then but we don’t think the man will be in a hurry to try drowning again.

True Tales of La Crosse: Unusual Stories from Old Newspapers of La Crosse, Wisconsin Compiled and edited by Douglas Connell (La Crosse, Wis. : D. Connell), 1994.

March 27, 2008

Dave's got the biggest little guitar shop in the world!

By Adam Bissen

adam.bissen@secondsupper.com Dave Rogers just can’t pull himself away from the guitar business — not for even 15 minutes. On a recent afternoon he was in the second-floor office of his eponymous Dave’s Guitar Shop, entertaining visitors with the story of how he made it. Spring’s first shower poured outside the picture window overlooking South Third Street, and Rogers reclined on a leather chair behind a wide desk stacked with business papers.

It was a work day. Rogers put in a lot of these over the past 25 years, guiding his shop from a small business next to a dentist office to one of the ten largest independent guitar vendors in the world. That story is a surprisingly simple one, but Rogers advised his guests that he didn’t have much time to tell it. Even during that 15 minutes he fielded four phone calls — possibly from customers around the world — advising them of when their vintage amplifiers would arrive or accepting praise for repair work on an old guitar.

It wasn’t like this 25 years ago. Back then, he said, all of Dave’s Guitar Shop could fit inside the office he was presently occupying. There were 17 guitars in the store, and he depended on repair work just to get by: “I remember the first day selling an amp for maybe $300 or something and saying ‘Oh, my God!’ It felt like I was rolling in money.”

Back then, Rogers was himself only 25-years-old. Born and raised in Marshfield, Wis., he came to La Crosse when he was 21 to play in bands and work in someone else’s guitar shop. When that owner retired, Rogers looked for work in other music stores, but he couldn’t find any jobs since the only instrument he knew how to play was guitar. “I didn’t really have a choice. I just kind of opened up my shop because I didn’t have a job,” he said. “It was that or not eat, I guess.”

For its first five years, Rogers was the only employee of Dave’s Guitar Shop. He also played in a band, Park Street, which was successful enough to live off of, so for the same period of time every dollar he made at the store was put back into inventory. As Rogers’ guitar

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stock grew, so did his ambition. He would load his instruments in trucks and take them to the major guitar conventions in Dallas, Philadelphia and other cities. His personal contacts grew with each appearance, and collectors began to take note of the seller from La Crosse with an honest reputation and a large stock of instruments. Before long, Rogers was trucking 300 new and vintage guitars down to Dallas, where he would rent out an entire aisle at the nation’s largest guitar convention. Most other vendors sold from 10-foot by 20-foot booths.

“I think Dave’s just a brilliant business person,” said Karl Meine, an employee at the shop.

“He kind of goes on the honesty principal. He’s never screwed anybody. He’s just very honest, very fair, and people trust him with anything.”

Today, following a handful of moves and additions, Dave’s Guitar Shop occupies a 26,000-square-foot building that is literally covered wall-to-wall with guitars. (There might also be 100 basses and a handful of mandolins.)

It is one of the biggest guitar vendors in the world, doing $5 million in sales annually while usually selling between 10 and 15 guitars per day. Around 80 percent of Rogers’ business is done online.

“I’ve never done anything different from the first day we started,” Rogers said. “We try to have an honest representation of what we consider good-quality guitars for fair prices.

We’ve always given good trades, and from day one to right now nothing’s changed that way.

It’s the same business. It just got a little bit bigger and a few more employees.”

Rogers owes his success to a good reputation with buyers. He often drew them into booths or the store with an impressive assortment of vintage guitars, but he also took their names and included them on an ever-expanding mailing list. Big ads in the major guitar magazines helped, as did word of mouth from bands that stopped by his shop.

“The first guitar I ever sold as a business was to Rick Neilson from Cheap Trick. But we’ve done business with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, the Rolling Stones and I’m sure a lot of really good up-and-coming bands, too,” Rogers said.

The iconic Dave’s Guitar Shop T-shirt can be spotted on more than a few onstage musicians, most of whom are not from La Crosse.

This author has also spotted the shirts in Florida, Illinois and California, and more than a few come out at major music festivals like Bonnaroo.

There are also collectors in Japan, Europe and the Middle East who have been buying from Dave’s Guitar Shop for years. Rogers said many check in to davesguitar.com after 6 p.m. each night, right when it’s being updated, to try to make the first purchase on instruments. In the morning, the staff needs to compare the timestamps on incoming emails to see who can buy the guitar. When one types “guitar shop” into Google, Dave’s place is the sixth entry to come up. Rogers’ credits that to his early mailing lists — as well as a worker in the 1990s who first introduced him to the World Wide Web. “A friend of mine said ‘Hey, there’s this thing, you know, the Internet. If I told you that you could put up a guitar right now and somebody in Japan could see it five minutes later

what would you think?’” Rogers recalled. “Back then if someone wanted a picture of a guitar we’d shoot a Polaroid and put it in the mail, so when he said that it’s like ‘This doesn’t make sense to me, but if it’s possible, this is great!’”

Today, Dave’s Guitar Shop has about 20 employees who sell, service and repair guitars, amplifiers and other accessories. It’s a spacious store were customers will come in to talk shop and play around on the instruments, and while there’s no Wayne’s World-esque “No Stairway” rule, guitar technician Todd Wolfgram will admit “We’ve thought about a no Stevie Ray rule.”

Twenty-five years in the guitar business have gone pretty well for Rogers. Most of the second story of his shop is dedicated to displaying his impressive private guitar collection, which tops out at nearly 350 instruments and includes an axe owned by Keith Richards, one of the 19 known 1959 Gibson Explorers and a 1959 Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul that is valued between $300,000 and $500,000.

He’s also got a pretty impressive collection of automobiles and plays a few times per month with his “guys’ night out” trio, the Dave Rogers Blues Band. Yet despite all this, he said many people in La Crosse don’t understand the scope of his business, and some have even

accused him of some felonious business being done from his giant store.

“But it’s always been just guitars,” Rogers says. “I tried delving into the stock market one time: just lost my ass. I owned a bar for a while, and it got to the point where with the money I lost in the bar every week I could buy a new guitar. Everything I’ve ever done besides guitar has been just a dismal failure, but the guitar business: I got that all figured out.”

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In the Studio at Natural Recordings

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where other people are running the show — and there’s money is involved — people all of a sudden get real serious. It becomes a professional “OK, we need to show up to play; it’s game time.”

SS: You said you’ve been doing this six, seven years. Have you noticed a change in the musicians that are coming in over time?

By Adam Bissen

adam.bissen@secondsupper.com Lorenzo Trudeau and Brandon Schockmel, longtime musicians who’ve been jamming together since their Logan High School days, opened Natural Recording Company in a basement studio on Main Street in 2002. Relocating to their current location on Fifth Avenue in July of this year, Natural is one of a handful of La Crosse recording studios, but its owners say its equipment is on par with anything in a big city. Hundreds of musicians from a variety of genres have laid down tracks in the place, so Second Supper went down there this week to see what’s happening.

Second Supper: Can you make a living in this town as recording engineers?

Lorenzo Trudeau: No, we both have full-time jobs besides this. [Trudeau works for Deaf Ear Records and Schockmel words for a TV station.] We do this on the side, nights and weekends, basically, whenever we can.

Brandon Schockmel: Both of us would love to do it — I know I would —as a full-time job. But the problem is, if you look at bands, bands are notorious for being the poorest, most unreliable people on the planet, right? And we both own homes and for us to rely on that to pay our mortgages — umm, no, it’s not gonna happen. So we just take it as we get it and spend

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pretty much every cent we get from bands back on equipment, because we don’t personally take any money at home at all. We’d like to in the future, but for the past five, six years now … we’ve been taking money and spending it on this stuff. [gestures around the studio.]

SS: When recording, is it tough to not step in and say “Oh, this should be higher. This solo should go this way…”?

LT: A lot of times you can tell right away whether someone wants your opinion or not, so they’ll either be open to it or closed off and say “not really.” You can usually tell right away whether or not somebody wants to hear what you have to say.

BS: The biggest thing is money, of course. We charge by the hour or by the day. And we could probably nitpick for hours and hours like they do in the big pro studios to make sure that it’s perfect, but it’s a band’s money. So we can’t really be telling them to do it over; if they think it’s good enough, well then it’s good enough.

SS: But Pro Tools is available on your home computer, so is GarageBand. What do you have to weigh out between trying to record something on your own versus coming into a studio?

BS: There’s a couple things. One is this Pro Tools [edition in our studio] just the software is $10,000. This is the upper-level, so it’s got way higher converters so there’s just going to be a huge sonic quality difference. But probably more of what you’re trying to get at is the experience of people who have been doing this for years, and we’ve recorded hundreds of bands now after six, seven years. We’re going to know very quickly how to find the best sound in your amp. We’re going to know what microphone to throw on there. We’re going to know how to EQ it, how to pan things, how to do stuff. And we’re going to be able to come up with a way higher quality sound than somebody would on their own home studio. They can spend a lot longer on their home studio, but I know from my own experience when I’m recording my own personal bands that it’s just kind of a nightmare. … You’d be stuck down in the room by yourself trying to this and eventually you’re just say “Fine, good enough.” It’s a good experience but it never turns out quite like you want it to, but if you come down to a professional studio, a professional atmosphere

BS: As far as genres, we used to do pop-punk almost exclusively, and now that pop-punk scene has turned into total metal. We do probably 3- or 4:1 metal bands compared to any other genre. And it’s great that they do what they do, but it’s just interesting that it shifted from where we used to do 3- or 4:1 pop-punk bands. It’s shifted into the metal. And there’s always jambands in there, too, but we haven’t done that many. We’ve done the Smokin’ Bandits stuff, most of Cheech’s stuff. We’ve been friends with a lot of those guys for years, but we’re not really in the jamband scene anymore.

We used to be it. When we were in college we were the local jambands. We were those guys, and now we’re just a couple of old, fat, short guys.

the studio — and this isn’t funny for bands, but for us. Every band has drama. Drama is bands.

It’s like being in a family. You’re going to fight and argue, and we’ve had some of the most ridiculous things happen in this room. They leave and we’re just like “Oh, my God!”

SS: What have been some of your favorite recording sessions in here?

LT: Bands breaking up in the studio. That’s happened before.

LT: There’s a lot of them. We have a lot of fun down here. Sometimes we get sidetracked. We just sit around and have fun instead of working on our recordings. Sometimes you get a roomful of likeminded people, and we have a lot of good times.

BS: They say “I don’t think we’re going to be famous with you as our lead singer.” We’re like “Really? Really? Did you just say that? Timeout, we’re going to take a dinner break.” And we leave the building like “What is up with this?”

That’s always a good time, dealing with the drama, because half of being a studio engineer is being a referee. It’s cool, you know. Everyone’s idea is a good idea. Let’s just hear them out.

Let’s just try it, but 99 percent of the time we know whether or not it’s going to work.

BS: I don’t want to say any names, but there’s this one guy who’s kind of an indie-rock, acoustic-rock guy we’ve been working with for a couple years now. We sit around just, like, talking and laughing. It seems like we do a 5-hour session and half the time is just laughing and having fun. He’s one of the funnest guys to record. … The Smokin’ Bandit sessions were fun, too. Those guys are great.

LT: I mean, we both really like them, too — not that we don’t like the other bands. We go watch them before we would work with them in the studios. We just really like their band.

BS: The funniest thing, I think that happens in

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March 27, 2008

Q&A with Zac Hanson and country sounds, I hear a lot of blues, some Motown and a little Ben Folds. Are there any styles or influences that have affected the development of your own music?

ZH: There are certainly a lot of styles that we pull from. Normal bands have one guy writing music and one guy writing lyrics. We are a little more eclectic, hopefully in a good way. I was joking recently that my ideal solo record would sound more like Brian Wilson. I’m actually a big fan of Ben Folds; we all are. Travis is a great band that we all love, so is Wilco. I wouldn’t say that there is any one style or artist, but if you like someone, there is an influence. We don’t like to worry about what Hanson sounds like; we worry about what sounds good.

SS: Through your major releases, your music tends to grow in refinement, in lieu of a total reinvention. You haven’t suddenly switched to playing songs that don’t suit you – something that seemed obvious with a song like Jewel’s “Intuition," which ended up selling women’s razors, if I recall. Is it easy to stick with what works for you and let the public’s expectations wander where they may?

By Brett Emerson brett.emerson@secondsupper.com This, to put it mildly, was an adventure. From the second I discovered that Hanson would be playing the La Crosse Center on April 9, I wanted to do an interview with the band. Our Mister Bissen deserves the lion’s share of credit for making this happen. Of course, getting there wasn’t easy. I spent one of the most bizarre April Fools Days ever, frantically preparing this interview, playing an empty-house bar show and hoping that my cell phone would work when Hanson called. It didn’t.

In light of my telecommunications disaster, Zac Hanson, the band’s drummer, was incredibly gracious.The result is this, an hour’s worth of conversation with a grounded musician, equally passionate about the music Hanson has crafted, and the work left to create.

Second Supper: The three of you were in your teens when you became famous.Was it difficult to stay well-adjusted with such a high profile at such an early age, given the blunt nature of the music business?

Zac Hanson: We love making music, and we were doing it because it was our thing. I think that with young artists who end up in rehab, it’s usually not their art. For us, we were writing music since the beginning, and I think that was one of our anchors, and we didn’t want to mess that up.

SS: How did you react to things like Celebrity Deathmatch, where Marilyn Manson dropped a ring’s rigging on you, and where you repeatedly met your demise? How exposed were you to things like this? Did that go with the territory, or did MTV’s fickle backlash get into your head?

ZH: We certainly weren’t shielded. I thought it was pretty funny. My only problem was that we didn’t get to finish the Spice Girls off. Marilyn

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Manson could have done his thing afterwards.

That doesn’t have anything to do with music, just celebrity culture, and that’s proof of success. Thankfully, the critics have done us justice.

SS: You’ve been together as a group for well over a decade. Is there any desire to perform in side projects?

ZH: We’re happy with the three of us together.

We have and do side projects, but that’s been purposely held under the radar. It does happen, and there probably will be more of that.

It’s healthy to keep your creative juices flowing.

From our end, it’s not a reflection of being unsatisfied, but more of a creative outlet.

SS: Did your musical career ever conflict with your education, in light of having such staggered ages? Were there any periods of waiting for someone to finish up?

ZH: No. It’s much more popular to use homeschooling and non-traditional educational systems in Oklahoma. Our schooling was more like that from the beginning, even before we started the band. We were playing 100 local shows a year anyway. I graduated high school when I was 16, and none of us went to college; we already knew what we were doing. We figured that learning was best done by going into the music business directly.

SS: Is there more cohesion within the group as you get older, or was that element always there?

ZH:Yes and no.As a musical group, we’ve grown stronger and learn to deal with each other better. As a non musical group, we’ve become less alike. When you’re younger, you have more things naturally in common.

SS: Your music draws together a large mixture of styles – aside from the obvious pop, rock

ZH: I think it’s easier for a band to say that we’re staying the course. There’s a sense, for a lot of people, of stability in that. We think that’s boring. Music is an evolving thing, and part of that is doing what’s exciting to you. Anyone with half a brain knows that, two years down the line, you’re listening to different styles. It’s not purposeful – we’re always going to sound like Hanson – but we don’t need to limit ourselves, but we’re not trying to be anything, either. I don’t like thrash metal. I’m not going to make a thrash metal band.

SS: In this vein, whose idea was “Snowed In," your Christmas album?

ZH: I don’t remember. I think it might have been suggested by our label. ... I still love that record – we made it in a month. For us, part of what was so compelling about that record was that it was a covers record, but at the same time it wasn’t a covers record. Doing a Christmas record that rocks a little bit, not like Andy Williams Christmas. Secretly, I think that’s the favorite album of Hanson fans.

ZH: It’s hard to say. Mostly, I think we have fans that have grown up with us. What’s been most interesting to me is that there’s a group of people who were just young enough where they didn’t know Hanson growing up.They were too young to really care about music. But now, it’s the younger brother or sister of a Hanson fan coming to a show, discovering the band. There are people who know Hanson who don’t know the music – it’s the pop culture aspect. Now, there’s certainly an aspect of rediscovery.

SS: Hanson is now an independent band, with your own label, 3CG. What steps brought that about?

ZH: Of course, every band starts out independent. After we were signed, we had a good relationship with our first label. We were turned down 13 times before we were signed to Mercury, and even they turned us down three times. There was a certain sense at that point that the music industry was doing well, even reaching a peak. A few years later, it wasn’t the case. For us, the downfall was when that label was dissolved, and we got absorbed into what is one of the biggest music mergers in history.

People got fired, and bands got dropped, but we stuck around and made it through it. Now we look back and wonder if it would have been better had we been dropped.

We ended up on Island/Def Jam. The fact that Def Jam was involved made it not a good home for us. The way they run their business – and you see this more and more – is based on a quarterly model. Records take more than three months to make and promote, and you can’t be successful in a setup that demands immediate payoff. So we were in a terrible home, with people from legal backgrounds instead of creative. This isn’t an industry that is looking to build careers. Labels are starting to do a 360 Deal, where they want to own your Web site, merchandising, touring, not just your recording.

We don’t want to be in a dying industry. It was

SS: Have you noticed a lot of your fans from the “Middle of Nowhere” era staying with the band? Do you notice an increase in new fans with each release, and do you hear much about people returning to your older material and rediscovering it with fresh ears?

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Õ time to go, so we forged our own label.

To me, the future is in building partnerships with passionate fan bases. The quality we offer needs to be what brings the fan back. The business of selling music is still alive and well, but the industry is dying. We want to create a new model, using tools like the Internet to level the playing field.

SS: Are there any other bands or musicians signed to 3CG? ZH: For the moment, we’re taking care of our own interests. We’ve had the label for four years, and we view it as a building block. We don’t want to do the same thing that other labels do, what doesn’t work. There are certainly other bands that we want to sign, but we look at what we can provide and realize that we aren’t ready to properly help them.

SS: How does free music downloading affect your livelihood? Did the creation of your documentary film, “Strong Enough to Break” – and the decision to release it as a free downloadable video – affect you financially?

ZH: What happened with the film was we formed the label, and we have this film, which was originally about what it takes to make a record. It became what it takes to get a record made, to get the right support. This is a powerful message, not only as it relates to Hanson. We see our friends’ bands going through the same process, sometimes falling apart or stuck in it. We saw the film as a powerful way to speak to the next generation of musicians.

We did a lecture tour with it, going to 40 or 50 colleges, talking about the future of the music business, exposing the reality. After doing that, we didn’t have any plans to commercially release it, but we started to get a lot of requests by people to use it. So we decided to give it away. Getting the message out was the key. We do have plans to re-release it, possibly at the end of the year.

As far as free music, it’s obvious that it affects us. The problem is that you don’t know how many people are downloading your music.

It’s impossible to tell the ratio of downloading versus buying. We don’t think it is right for people to take music because it’s free, but if that creates a fan that ends up buying our albums or tickets, that’s a good thing. Giving real avenues to downloading high-quality music is the key. The broken business doesn’t hold their bands to high quality standards, and have in a way brought this about.The companies ignored file-sharing before it was a problem. They did this to themselves. We look to the future. Music is like a tattoo, and bands have to make music where people are proud to wear your tattoo, no matter what kind of music you like.

SS: How has being an independent musician altered how you’ve promoted “Underneath” and “The Walk," compared to your older material?

Have the recent distribution experiments carried out by artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead changed the way you think about getting your music out?

ZH: I think there have been some really smart things. Prince did two of the smartest. First, he

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took his ticket prices, and offered his album as part of it. It may not work for every band, but you’re making sure that fans are walking away with your album. Another thing he did was to go out to the UK, went to a newspaper, and offered his album with the paper for a fee. It negated the expenses that you deal with Best Buy but enabled him to make $2 million. Most fans aren’t aware of these methods. What Radiohead offered, pay what you want, it didn’t work. The money they made was marginal. No band that isn’t Radiohead could survive that.

For ourselves, we’ve focused on our own Web site and our own community, working on ways to make ourselves more viable. For the moment, I would say that the key to bands is quality of records, less focused on long processes of two years making and promoting an album, making less music, more often. There are so many distractions meant to draw the attention of your fans; you need to keep them engaged in a way that is more constant.

SS: You’ve done a great deal of impressive charity work. Would you care to discuss your proudest achievements, as well as the work you’re doing with “The Walk Tour”?

ZH: To be honest, I don’t think we’ve done much.There are a lot of people who have come out and helped us. It has only been fueled by passionate fans. Halfway through making “The Walk," we had a conversation with a friend of ours who developed software. They were offering a program to hospitals specializing in vaccines, something they knew could actually reduce the expectancy of viruses in newborn babies and save some lives. We decided to go with these guys; there was something here that we needed to be a part of. We ended up doing a recording of a children’s choir in Mozambique. We don’t know what role we were going to play, but we were there to learn it. One of the greatest tragedies is a baby born with a life expectancy. We saw this and said, let’s see what we can do. We started by donating the proceeds from “Great Divide” to that hospital, and then started giving out proceeds from our t-shirts. After that, it was a process of putting one foot in front of the other.

SS:What’s the one song you would cover, if you had the opportunity? Who is the one person you’d want to make music with?

ZH: A song that I love, that we’ve only played informally, is “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel. A lot of our influences come from this style. I’d love to collaborate with Brian Wilson.

music reviewer praises these groups that don’t have the soul to be a great rock and roll band. I don’t care if the look is right. It’s what happens when you’re on stage and you perform.

SS: Do you have any professional goals remaining, or are you happy to simply continue making music, and take whatever comes from now on?

SS: What’s your favorite movie?

ZH: I’m juggling between “Three Amigos” and “Spinal Tap." Incredibly, Spinal Tap is so short.

It’s such a perfect representation of the business. So many people know it now, but it was a flop when it came out. It’s grown like a fungus, in a cold wet place.

SS: What are your impressions of the recent trend of Disney-crafted pop stars, such as The Jonas Brothers?

ZH: It makes me very glad that we weren’t part of the Disney machine.We always did things on our own terms. That never would have worked for us. We would have never made a movie.

What frustrates me more than those bands are the poser-rock bands.At least the Disney world doesn’t fake what it is. It’s the bands who come out and have no musical talent, but look like Led Zeppelin, that pisses me off. Every moronic

ZH: I do have tangible professional goals. There are two sides to what we do, as a band as a record label. As a band, what we’ve done with “The Walk” is only the beginning. We want to be part of creating communities of artists playing and writing together, creating movements, being part of a group of bands that are succeeding together. In the '60s, it was much more common for artists to get together, and suddenly these cool projects would come out.

That’s what we strive to do.

SS: Awesome. Thank you very much.

Hanson plays the La Crosse Center on Wednesday, April 9. Tickets are $30 in advance, $32.50 day of show.

We came across a shoe company called TOMS, which gives out a pair of shoes to a child in poverty with every pair sold. We went to them and offered to sell their shoes at our concerts.

To give people perspective on how much it means to have shoes, we started to take our fans out to walk for a mile, barefoot.TOMS sets a really good example, not just in what they’re doing, but how they’re looking at their business.

They started giving their shoes from the beginning, not running occasional charity drives. If you can combat things like poverty, you’re suddenly able to treat the well as well as the sick, by teaching people and building better communities. If we wait, the problem we face will only be compounded.

SS: What’s the last song (which isn’t yours) that you’ve listened to more than five times?

ZH: We just did South by Southwest, and ran into an artist named Mason Jennings. He sent me some of his stuff. There’s a song called “Empire Builder” that was great.

March 27, 2008

Musical Overload or Free Education?

By Brett Emerson

brett.emerson@secondsupper.com A rare occurrence took place on Easter night, something which I don’t usually do. Sadly, it owes in large part to my recent acquisition of a brand new 80 gig iPod, which has freed me from the LCD clutches of my archaic 20 gig. As a result of this purchase, the next logical step presented itself: steal more music. However, the aims and reasons behind the squealing avarice had changed. When hampered by a player that was at its memory limit, my illegal acts were limited to necessity. That meant deleting the crap, downloading three albums per week and digesting their information into smarmy album reviews for this fine publication. It was considered a luxury if there was enough space to allow preparation for future weeks.That limitation, thankfully, no longer exists, and on Easter, I set my upgraded technology to a fuller use.

Gang of Four is a band with a long shadow, but little personal fame. It’s entirely possible that more people have read about the band in frothy retrophile music blurbs than have actually listened to their songs. If a rock band carries any combination of danceable basslines, frenetic high-end guitar stomp or anti-capitalist lyrics, it can be assumed that a scribe somewhere has drawn comparison to Gang of Four. If it’s an indie rock band from the current decade, the comparison is guaranteed. Well, I like saucy bitch dance rock bands, but much in the same way I never watched The Exorcist until I was 20, I never listened to this fount of influence. It was time. After a short jaunt down Pirate Bay Lane, I absorbed Gang of Four’s entire catalog.

And it’s tits.

The arguments against music downloading, by now, are pretty old hat. Label executives and their cronies scowl from their cylindrical ivory towers and into our phone and cable lines. Their IP headhunters pick off the threelegged wildebeests among our ne'erdowell flock, dragged into court and berated by an entire industry. How dare we refuse to pay artists pennies on the dollar! How dare we shirk our responsibilities to the funding of the Capitol Records company picnic and a seventh

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garage for its CEO! The Don Henley Pyramids are only half complete, and we have abandoned them. For shame, minimum wage sonic plebeians! Get back to work!

My favorite of these indignant postures is one specific commercial, which offers all the morality of a cattle prod. “You wouldn’t steal a television,” it asks, in big meth addict letters, “so why do you steal music?” Ahem, sir. I believe that Hurricane Katrina and the Los Angeles Riots might have something to say about this gross assumption of human nature. Any bored suburban teenager with a lawn gnome collection can fill in the remaining blanks.

There are only two arguments that I consistently accept against music piracy. The first and most obvious is that piracy takes a disastrous toll on young and/or independent musicians. Duh. Gene Simmons would paint KISS makeup on dog turds if he saw a profit in it, so it’s hardly unethical to dine and dash the prick.

The hobos who choke through scum clubs for the faintest recognition, however, don’t have the luxury of MTV branding and shitty reality shows to pay the bills. MySpace is often their only way out, poor souls.

Beyond this, it is undeniable that piracy has made all music more disposable. Of my own top five albums, only one was released in the age of rampaging peer-to-peer. We’re in an age of information and musical overload, consuming in Fat Elvis bulk. Anyone who has worked in a record store (and I have) will tell you that free music covers a multitude of artistic sins, but rarely escapes Use Once and Destroy. This paradigm now applies to us all.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the current era is but one in a series, that music is simply continuing in its disposable path, which was set with the advent of music recording and its mass production. After all, it’s not as though we enshrined CDs, cassettes or vinyl en masse, unleashed foaming Cerberuses to guard our Loverboy albums. (OK, so I did.) Vapid gimmegimme has increased, no doubt, but it was already there, once we abandoned the auditoriums and concert halls.

But there’s a question which came to mind as I pillaged the Bit Torrents of antiquity.

Piracy can turn the attention span to pudding, but can it also be used to greatly expand our musical knowledge? In the age of Internet, our hands are smaller, but our arms are longer than ever. For college kids who work part time and have a very limited income, spending cash on impromptu music appreciation courses is not the most sensible plan of action. When history is free, there’s a better chance of genuine education. Ask your local student loan officer.

When I worked at a record store, my music comprehension skyrocketed, owing tremendous dividends to the amount of free promos I was able to snatch up. Being a loudmouthed music brat here has only increased the opportunity for that trivia piggybank to grow.

This wouldn’t be possible without sidestepping the pesky commercialism harpies. The grand scope of music has never been more available.

The potential for listeners to break away from modern corporate prescriptions is at a high.

Make your moral judgments accordingly, as I rock out to Roxy Music, without paying a dime.

PSA

Reminds you to support the retailers, restaurants, taverns and bands that support us. We are funded solely by advertising so if you want to support us, support them!

conscientious commerce, it's like Capitalism with a heart

WIN!

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What format are you listening to?

Hey kids! Have you ever wondered about all the work that went into that mp3 you just illegally downloaded and are listening to right now? Well, take off your headphones for a minute, and I’ll explain why your free music might not be all that it’s cracked up to be. In this day and age, we have, literally, millions of different songs available at our fingertips, and it can be ours with just the click of a mouse. But what happens when you open up that brand spankin’ new download, and it’s not an mp3, but an .oog, or an .flac, or .ape? What then? Well, grab my hand and we’ll take a magical tour through the wondrous land of audio compression!

Audio compression is the blanket term given to anything that reduces the overall size of an audio file. When an audio file is to be compressed, we use something that’s called an audio codec, which is basically a piece of software that will compress an audio file to a much lower size. Mp3, AAC (iTunes) and WMA (Windows Media Players), are all forms of audio codecs. However, not all audio codecs are created equally, and there are some out there that are simply better than others. Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors that need to be considered when trying to find the best available audio codec for you to use.

When trudging through the thick fidelity jungle that is audio codecs, there’s one major rule to remember to make sure you don’t get lost in a world of sound. Basically, there are two main types of audio codecs that exist out there today:“lossy” audio codecs and “lossless” audio codecs. “Lossy” audio codecs will compress an audio file the most effectively, and will give you the smallest available size which can still play on any modern-day audio system, but will remove parts of the original sound file. The end result?

“Lossy” audio codecs will have a reduced audio quality. Now, “lossless” audio codecs won’t reduce the audio as effectively as “lossy”, but will have a much higher audio quality when you listen to it (hence the term “lossless," since nothing is removed from the original audio file).

Here’s a basic example to sum up the main differences between “lossy” and “lossless”: with a high fidelity audio CD that you just legally bought from Deaf Ear, you can fit one hour of high fidelity audio.With “lossless” compression, you get about two hours of high-fidelity audio.

With “lossy“compression, you can now fit up to seven hours of music, but you will lose some of that quality.

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So now that you have a basic understanding of audio compression, let’s talk a little more about the more popular audio codecs you’re likely to see when you download your 23rd remixed version of “Souljah Boy." Let’s start off with the one that most of you are using right this very minute: AAC. AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding and is currently the standardized audio codec for the iPod, iTunes and the iPhone. Most commonly you’ll see the file extensions.mp4 and .acc. Its biggest drawback is that it uses a “lossy” compression, but can still achieve a higher quality sound than your standard mp3. This is due to the fact that the AAC can playback at a much higher bit-rate than your standard mp3. Keep in mind that the higher bit-rate your audio file is, the higher the quality will be.

Another popular audio codec is the ALAC, or the Apple Lossless Audio Codec. As you can tell by the name, this utilizes a “lossless” codec which results in a nice, high quality audio file with nothing removed from the original file. Currently, QuickTime and recent versions of iTunes can utilize this codec to give you a nice, crisp sound.

Back in the day, WAV files were all the rage. If you go to any search engine and type in “Simpson WAVs," you will find a plethora of your favorite Simpson quotes, all ready to be played in one of the first audio codecs to be widely used. The WAV audio codec was originally created back in 1998 and was one of the first audio compression codecs to be used widely by the public. It’s a “lossless” audio codec, and will give you a very high quality sound with nothing lost. However, the WAV codec was not very efficient at shrinking down file size, with your average three minute song being about 30,000 KB (compared to the average mp3 size of around 3,000 KB).

Last but not least, we’ll talk about the one that everybody and their mother knows about: the mp3. Mp3 or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, is a “lossy” audio codec that compresses your normal audio file very, very effectively. Originally developed in France during the early '90s, the mp3 compression works by removing bits of the original audio file that were deemed to be “out of the auditory spectrum” for most people. Basically, the components of an audio file that most people wouldn’t have even heard for the most part were removed in order to shrink the file size. One can still have high quality mp3s though, but the bit-rates for these have to be on the higher side in order to counteract the difference (264 kb – 392 kb).

I hope this helps to clarify some of the minor differences that exist between all those pesky, different audio codecs. Now the next time you’re at your big cocktail party, you can delight everyone around you with your knowledge of audio compression — and how much better Reign in Blood would sound if you used .alac versus .mp3. Have fun listening, kiddies!

Maria "gives" a bit back

By Maria Pint

maria.pint@secondsupper.com You know, I’ve been feeling a little bit like a slacker lately since all I do is go to class, pretend to do my homework and Facebook my time away. Maybe it’s the nicer weather (comparatively I suppose) or the fact that I just want an excuse to not actually do my homework, but I just really want something new to occupy my time.

Now extra-curricular stuff has always sort of been my specialty so I really didn’t think I would have a problem finding one to just join.

In high school I was in National Honor Society, the president of Student Council, photography editor of the school newspaper and a captain of the golf team; I know, I was pretty cool. I was one of those kids that stayed at the school from seven in the morning till seven at night most days because of all of the sweet meetings that went along with my E.C.s.

The thought of that level of commitment really makes me cringe now though, so I was very careful in my E.C. search as to not consider anything that would for real require work.

Sitting through a few student senate meetings ensured that I would NEVER, ever consider doing that seeing as how most of their meetings pushed three hours. Sports are out of the question because I lack any athletic talent; I’m average height with a horrible vertical, I can’t run distances or sprints and I find myself to be one of the most clumsy people ever. I trip over the white lines on the roads sometimes; it’s really quite difficult to be me.

Granted, I do write for the oh-so-awesome Second Supper, but I hardly consider that an extra curricular. Let’s be honest, I write a column about my life every week and since I’m generally conscious for most of the day’s events, it doesn’t take all that long. Throw in a little witty banter here and there and I can have it sent in 15 minutes after sitting down to write it. I need an E.C. of some substance, something that makes me feel like more than just another no good college student. Hell, for National Honor Society in high school we would hang out at the nursing home on Saturdays to help

ÕÕ

them play Bingo; there’s got to be old people in La Crosse too, right?

Well not too long ago I joined this fraternity thing in hopes that it would fill this growing gap in my life; it has proved to just further anger me. Not too long ago, my two friends in the fraternity and I signed up to go help prepare a meal at Place of Grace today.

Place of Grace is over on Hood Street, and I think it’s an offshoot of the Dorothy Day center’s that can be found in other cities; so essentially it’s a little neighborhood soup kitchen. Pretty cool I thought when I was signing up and heck, it said that we would be there from four to seven and I tend to be sitting on my butt around that time of night.

About two days ago I got an email saying that we should show up at eleven and we can leave at two thirty; not at all close to the previous times, but I was willing to roll with it. Well, we showed up today at eleven and the people running the place seemed very surprised to see us; that right there sent up a red flag in my head. We walk in and they start chatting with us and we find out that all of the food has been prepared already and they don’t start serving until two which goes to four. For real, who checked on those times?! At no point in time did they have it right.

For a while we could stay busy by sorting some cans in the storeroom for them, which was good. I almost broke a service sweat even.

Unfortunately, we were damn good sorters because we got done with that by noon and we still had two hours until people would even start showing up.The people in charge just told us we could sit on some couches and wait.

Wait? For two hours? Yikes. We made it about ten minutes before we got real restless and one of the girls with us went out to her car to get a deck of cards. I knew my goal of doing some good in the community wouldn’t be achieved on this day when they started playing Bull Shit; we were playing Bull Shit in a Catholic run soup kitchen, so basically I’m also going to hell.

I think we for real made it to about twenty more minutes before we just couldn’t take it anymore. We told the people in charge that we were going to leave and maybe try to come back to help some other day because most of us had planned our days around the eleven to two thirty time frame; I myself had a group meeting at three. And since nothing would be happening, not even a little bit, until two we just didn’t see the point. Plus most of us were hung over so it just seemed like a good idea.

I’m not going to lie to you, I was pretty pissed off when I returned home at 12:30. All I want is to hug a poor baby or help an old lady across the street or something. Find a cat in a tree and at least call the fire department, but no, I feel like I’m doomed to be just another slacker at UW-L. Either that or I’m going to take drastic steps pretty soon that I’m sure I’ll regret almost instantaneously; Pint for Student Senate President!

March 27, 2008

Deaf Ear Records Defies the Digital Wave

By Emily Faeth

emily.faeth@secondsupper.com If you've spent any amount of time in downtown La Crosse, you know the ultimate stop to get your music fix is Deaf Ear Records.

Known for its wide selection of CDs and vinyl, many of which are obscure and hard to find, Deaf Ear has been a staple of La Crosse's downtown district for generations. In an era when most young people purchase or steal music on the Internet, independent record stores are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Deaf Ear Records, however, has stood the test of time: Dedication and a love of music have been the lifeblood of this storied downtown fixture.

Deaf Ear is older than I am. In 1978, a single individual leased a garage behind Fayze's restaurant and stocked it with all the records he could get his hands on. Unfortunately, through the years and the various changes of hands Deaf Ear has endured, that pioneering individual's name has been lost. Another enterprising figure in Deaf Ear's history, however, was Alex D'Angelo, who, among other contributions, helped along the blossoming young record shop by constructing many of the tables used to display the wares Deaf Ear offered (one of his tables is still used in the store's current location).The original owner of the store called it quits after operating for only about one year.

"At that point, Alex had two options. One was to lose all of the money he had sunk into creating all of the tables and other fixtures he'd made for the store. The other was to buy the guy out and take over the whole operation," Deaf Ear owner Jason Mills tells me. Apparently, D'Angelo was the man to take the reins and guide the business toward the form it inhabits today.

After residing in the alleyway garage, Deaf Ear's next home was on 3rd Street, in the old Wiggert's building. After several years, the store moved around the corner to the location I first became acquainted with, on the corner of 4th and Jay streets. Because of the proximity of the 4th and Jay location to another available storefront (now Pickerman's), Deaf Ear was able to expand its offerings. Brew Note and the Third Stone Revival were, for a time, sister businesses to Deaf Ear: Brew Note was a short lived coffee shop, while the Third Stone specialized in organic, hemp and recycled clothing, among other things. In 1999, the building Deaf Ear currently inhabits became available, and the business faced yet another renaissance.

D'Angelo, still the owner of Deaf Ear at that point, took one of his employees to lunch and over the meal saddled him with the heavy news that he would no longer be running the business. "I thought I was out of a job," says Mills, reminiscing. "Alex said, 'I'm done with Deaf Ear.' I didn't know what I was going to do. But then he looked at me and said, 'I'm done with Deaf Ear. And I want you to run it.'"

"I took over about eight years ago," says Mills, peering at me over a stack of files and music memorabilia in his office above Deaf Ear on 4th Street. "I started working here back in '97. I think what got [Alex] to notice me was the fact that when we moved the store, I was the one who was willing to do the dirty work, the jobs no one else wanted to do. More than

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my college degree, it was the fact that I was willing to get dirty," jokes Mills.

The fact that an independent music store has survived in La Crosse is not, in fact, a huge surprise to Mills. "La Crosse is a strange place.

It's had several music stores. Back in the day, there was Metamorphosis, and Face the Music used to have a shop in town. Since I've owned Deaf Ear, La Crosse has had two other music stores open and then close.There was the Time Warp, which was run by a guy out of Winona, and Big Cat Records. [Big Cat was] more of a hip-hop store; they sold sneakers, other stuff... but most of their music was burned compilations, which was totally illegal. So they didn't last long," says Mills, chuckling. "We also have places like the Warehouse, which is a pretty amazing thing for a city this size. But Deaf Ear has endured."

As a result of our modern practice of attaining music off the web, independent music stores have become something of an endangered species in our urban environments. If an individual does not acquire her music on the Internet, then she mainly purchases her music from major retailers such as Best Buy, right?

Judging by Deaf Ear's success, however, that assumption doesn't always ring true. Deaf Ear has weathered the technological onslaught of "free" music, and continues to thrive as a purveyor of pop. "It's unusual.The reason we make it is because of our used music. We guarantee everything, so it's basically like buying it new, except sometimes things aren't in as pristine of shape as if you had bought it new." Deaf Ear charges only a fraction of what other retailers might, even for a newly released CD. If a listener discovers a problem with anything he has purchased from Deaf Ear, he can have his money refunded or have his purchase replaced immediately.

"We don't have to follow the rules a corporation does. We're able to figure out what sells in La Crosse and what people are looking for. Then we adjust. When Deaf Ear Records first opened, we sold only vinyl. Then as the years went on, we got cassettes, and I think 8-tracks were around for awhile. And then when I first started working here in the late '90s, vinyl had pretty much died out. Everyone wanted CDs; no one was interested in records anymore. There is of course the exception of the punk movement:They've always been interested in records, and put them out, as well.

"As time went on, and the Internet became more prevalent, music became more available in electronic form; you can download whatever you want now. That actually started bringing records back, the reason being that you can't download vinyl. We don't have to worry about [lost sales from] that. And on top of that, many of the records you buy now have a code in the packaging, so you can download the music for free online. That way you get the album art and the actual physical record you can hold in your hand, along with a [digital and physical] copy of the music."

Incontestably, Deaf Ear has kept up with the changing tides of musical trade. "It blows me away. We expected [the availability of music online] to have a huge impact. But overall sales haven't really changed. In fact, the overall effect has been that the price of CDs has gone down, which encourages people to buy more,"

says Mills. Perhaps Deaf Ear's longevity can also be attributed to the personal experience one undertakes when purchasing music from the store. "The artwork certainly gives people a reason to buy CDs," says Mills, recognizing the fact that many Deaf Ear regulars have also developed aesthetic relationships with the staff and seek their opinions when purchasing new music. Mills encourages his staffs' influence on customer choices, but also acknowledges the overwhelming smorgasbord we all face when purchasing music. Furthermore, Deaf Ear has long been a proponent of local art and expression. Currently displayed just inside the entrance to the store is a sampling of the work of local artist Shannon Pittman, who designed the Johnny Cash and Siouxsie Sioux panels; other pieces by local artists can be found throughout the store.

The other night, while making arrangements for the interview that would evolve into

this article, Mills gave me a tour of the now abandoned upper floors of Deaf Ear. As a teenager, I had spent time in the crumbling rooms and moldering hallways above what would someday be the record shop. Mills told me how the building was once a hotel and was, at one point, known as a place to find prostitutes.

The place hadn't changed much from the flophouse I remembered from my teenage years.

The paint still crumbled; the murals on the walls remained still: pathetic reminders of the bohemian lifestyle we so desperately craved as disillusioned youth. But we didn't know that we stood upon a rock: whether housed in a garage, a derelict building or a Prohibition-era hotel with a dirty history, Deaf Ear has survived the test of time, and has remained a constant reminder of why we ever purchased music in the first place.

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Ă• When we did this Deaf Ear story, our "contact" handed us these precious relics from some band signing back in the '80s. Bullet Boys' first record sold over a million copies. They remain together to this day and resides in Naples, FL. We're guessing in a housing complex called, "Shady Oaks Assisted Living Condos."

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March 27, 2008

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FREESTYLE

FRIDAY Open Mic 8-9 US w/ Efftup 9-10 Wide Eyes 10-11 Hives Inquiry Squad w/ More Than Lights 11-?

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

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Ă&#x2022;

Clothing provided by:

Three Rivers Outdoor 400 Main St. Downtown La Crosse Mion Ebb Tide Slide Sandal $59.95 Horny Toad Hayes Skirt $59.95 Lole Begonia Tank $34.95 Buff-Summer Buff $21.95

15

Model: Allison Bayer Photog: Kelly Morrison

March 27, 2008

In Three Rivers Plaza next to Festival Foods 40 Copeland Ave La Crosse, WI 785-2703 Or visit us in

ONALASKA 2928 Market Place (across from Wal-Mart) 783-2703 &

WEST SALEM I-90 Exit 12 786-2703

Burritos

Tacos

Nachos

Salads

- MEX UP YOUR DAY AND B.A. BURRITO

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

16

Õ Reviews - a guide to consumption English Style Special Ale Sand Creek Brewery Black River Falls Americans don’t do subtlety well. From our pizza to our movies to our cars to our foreign policy, the most common message we present to consumers is often: Hey, get a load of this stuff! Unfortunately, this same predilection affects much of our beer supply.American microbrewers have access to the kind of fresh ingredients and business freedoms other brewers would envy, yet they regularly chose to smack drinkers upside the head with superfluous bite or gimmicks instead of considering the reasoned flavors of old-world beers. It’s a stylistic difference, of course, but there’s something to be said about a beer that’s been thought out and doesn’t need to be showy to be loved.

This week we sample a subtle beer from an unexpected source: the Sand Creek Brewery in Black River Falls. Their English Style Special Ale is a brown ale that does an admirable job of following the English tradition. It pours a vivRatings: id amber color with a foamy lace head. The aroma isn’t one to immediately grab your attention, but it opens up after further consideration 7 of 10 into a rich loamy aroma. This is a beer that smells of the earth, and the nicely malted barley and deep hops convey a foggy evening in the 8 of 10 British countryside. After that excellent buildup, the flavor is a bit of a 7.5 of 10 letdown, but it misses the mark in endearing ways.The beer tastes dry from the first sip as the even hops hit the taste buds. There’s a pleas7.5 of 10 ant edge to it, although the malt taste drops out a bit and the beer turns a bit sour at the finish. Still, it’s smooth through and through and 7 of 10 grows on you when you actually take the time to consider the flavors.

This beer isn’t flashy, rich or modern-tasting, and that’s exactly why it Total: stands out from the pack.

37 of 50 — Adam Bissen

Brett Favre

1/2 Bacardi, 1/2 Hpnotiq splash of red bull

Creme de Noisette White House Coffees $11.99 /lb Coffee donated by Briar Patch

reless i W e Fre et!

Intern ig Ten NFL, B rk!

Netwo

Great Study Environment right across from Onalaska High!

426 2nd Ave South Onalaska, WI 608.781.9999 - www.thetimbers.biz

(southwestern) 17

I'm going to have to preface this coffee review by apologizing to flavored coffee drinkers. I don't like flavored coffee, and if you do, you have some serious self-reflection to do.

Creme de Noisette is French for Hazelnut Cream and sadly, that's as exotic as this coffee gets. This variation on the grandfather of all flavored coffees, Hazelnut, has a light, sweet head stuck on top of a very woody and acidic torso. That's pretty much all I can say about the flavor of this thing.

Due to the nature of flavored coffees (poorly roasted beans paired with heavy artificial flavors) their flavors tend to be dualistic and simple. This is due to the fact that it's difficult for flavored coffees to retain the really complex and spicy textures that come with straight roasted coffee. That said, this coffee is pretty deec for a flavored brew so if you're an armchair coffee-drinker, this is your simple cup.

— Joel Kuennen

(soups & sandwiches) March 27, 2008

Film Reviews

WE’VE GOT THE

SPEED fEED!

STOP-LOSS (2008) Director: Kimberly Peirce Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum Writer: Kimberly Peirce and Mark Richard

By Nicholas Cabreza

nicholas.cabreza@secondsupper.com The small Texas town that plays host to the events in Stop-Loss features tobacco-chewing, cowboy-hat-wearing, empty-beer-bottle-shooting redneck caricatures, and seems more like a harvesting ground for US soldiers than an actual community. Chivalry is very much alive in small town Texas. The soldiers are like knights, sent into battle at a young age to garner the praise of the elders and the virginal maidens.

Despite its (I'm guessing) authentic Texas exterior, Stop-Loss contains a plot that, within the context of all the cowboy hats, line dances, Toby Keith sing-alongs, and girlfriend batterings, is excruciatingly un-Texan-like.

Stop-Loss centers around Brandon King (Ryan Philippe), a decorated soldier who returns home after a horrendous final tour in Iraq. Brandon discovers he's been stop-lossed, meaning—I've inferred—that he's going back

Ted Bundy (2002) Director: Matthew Bright Cast: Michael Reilly Burke, Boti Ann Bliss Director Matthew Bright has done the impossible – he has turned Ted Bundy into a comedic genius. After watching this movie, I can’t even look at pictures of the most notorious serial murderer in American history without Bright’s bumbling caricature popping up and making me snicker. Ted’s not scary anymore; he’s a slaughterhouse rodeo clown, traipsing the country in his yellow VW Beetle of Death, raping and killing to an upbeat disco score. Ted Bundy is the mass murderer’s equivalent of Springtime for Hitler, so stunning in audacity that it must become a cult classic.

The film doesn’t screw around in belaboring its statement of purpose. Our first glimpse of Ted comes in his morning routine,

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

to Iraq whether he wants to or not. Brandon goes AWOL, heads north with his long-time friend Michelle (Abbie Cornish), and plans to jump the border into Canada. Here's the part I don't understand: Why is Brandon so against being stop-lossed to the point of defecting?

A stereotypical Texan would love the chance to serve longer, right? This film reminds me of another MTV picture, Varsity Blues, in which a high school quarterback goes against the will of his family and teammates to oppose the pressure set upon him by "the man." But Texans love football and the Army more than anything, and would gladly forfeit their genitals for the chance to be a star quarterback or a decorated war hero. Your stereotypical Texan—and indeed every character in Stop-Loss save for Brandon—thinks the importance of going to war far outweighs the price of one's sanity.

The willing suspension of belief is strong with anyone who can sit through Stop-Loss and believe that a Texan would dodge another tour in Iraq. If you like watching white males with chiseled jaw-lines and jocular accents argue about who's got the bigger set of Cadbury's, then Stop-Loss is your movie.The film's "war is hell" message gets swallowed up in Brandon's sudden loss of patriotism. In an effort to bring to light the horrors of war, Stop-Loss gives a Deer Hunter-esque effort that culminates in Lifetime Original Movie results. . looking into his mirror and performing what appears to be a Tourette’s-fueled rubberface.

From there,Ted embarks on a pleasant day out, frantically stealing televisions from storefronts and gigantic potted plants from hotel parking lots. The evening draws Ted to a swinging club, where he boogies down with a co-ed before following her back to her place and angrily masturbating outside of her bedroom window.

After a second-floor neighbor cockblocks Ted with a pitcher of ice water, the creep scurries away, clubbing a random woman in the head and stealing her purse for no good reason.Yeah, the rest of the movie pretty much follows this formula, and (seriously) ends with Ted getting a fistful of cotton balls up shitter, followed by credit music that would be more appropriate as background for winning a new car on The Price is Right. Jesus.

Though there are a few scenes which induce genuine squirm, it’s clear that Bright – no stranger to crap filmmaking – set out to make a comedic slasher flick, and slapped the Bundy swerve on for the illusion of weight. Michael Reilly Burke plays a passable Ted, though any depth he hoped to bring to the role was surely squashed after clubbing the fifth or so oblivious girl to death. Boti Bliss plays Ted’s girlfriend with such dithering stupidity that they ought to have put a helmet on her. The victims may as well be crash test dummies. This is both a glorious skewering of a dreadful affair, and a spit in the face to all those affected. It’s hard to determine which is greater.

Oh, Ted, you rascal.You got us again

TO

FREAKY

FREAKY

FAST!

Good!

AMERICA’S # 1 SANDWICH DELIVERY!

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L AC R O S S E ~ 3 1 2 PE ARL ST. ~ 608.784.414 2 O N A L AS K A ~ 9 4 3 2 STATE H W Y. 16 ~ 608.781.4 240 J I M M YJ O H N S . C O M ©2007 JIMMY JOHN’S FRANCHISE, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

On County Highway OA just 15 minutes from La Crosse and 5 minutes from Valley View Mall and Hwy. 33.

Daily Specials Monday

Drink Specials

Tuesday

All Day Thursday-Sunday $1.75 Cans $1.25 Taps $1.75 Rail Mixers

Pizza & Pitcher $9.00 $1.25 1/3 lb Burgers

Wednesday

Bucket of Beers $9.00

Food Specials

Thursday - 10  wings Friday - Free Fries with $.25 Wings Sandwich,Free Wings 3-5 Happy Hour Saturday - 12" Homemade Mon-Fri, 3-6 $1.25 Taps, $1.75 Cans Pizzas $5.00, Free Fries with Sandwich $.25 off mixers 18 Thursday

Õ

Album Reviews The B-52’s – Funplex

There is an universal law which my friends and I have held onto for many years, and this law states that EVERY SONG IN EXISTENCE SOUNDS BETTER WHEN FRED SCHNEIDER SINGS IT. Jim Morrison? Aretha Franklin? Luciano Pavarotti? All are vocalist hacks by comparison. Funplex marks the first studio album from the B-52’s in 16 years, it has been well worth the wait for the Return of Fred.

There aren’t any songs on the disc which match the sheer kickass of “Rock Lobster” or “Private Idaho”. Still, it’s a great album, made singular by its increasingly synthed-up sounds, as well as Schneider descending into even creepier lyrical territory.The best line on the album, without a doubt, comes during the road trippy “Ultraviolet”, when Fred suddenly shouts “There’s a rest stop, let’s hit the G-Spot!” Yeah.

Lest it be assumed otherwise, the merits on this album do not lie exclusively within weirduncle camp. Songs like “Juliet of the Spirits” and “Eyes Wide Open” are sultry and beat-soaked vamps; A-sides “Pump” and “Funplex” explode with glam rock enthusiasm. And though not everything here is wonderful, the tracks all work for what they’re trying to accomplish. This is an unabashed party album that snaps on its pink latex gloves and gets the job done. — Brett Emerson

The Dreaming – Etched In Blood

114 5 t h A v e n u e - La Cro s s e

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,S 5PÉV 4VU -YP

There’s no escaping the fact that this band is Stabbing Westward Lite. Though only singer Christopher Hall has carried over from that now defunct group, the influence is blatant. The tone of Etched in Blood is more rock than electronic – almost pop-punkingly so at times – but Hall’s will-o-wisp wailing has changed little in the past decade. Avoiding the typecast is childactor impossible. The music isn’t bad, quite the opposite in most cases. It just doesn’t stand out at all, especially in light of Hall’s previous work.

The standout moment on the disc is its inevitable 80’s New Wave Cover Song. As usual, it’s a veiled attention grab without much weight to back it up. In The Dreaming’s case, we are treated to “Send Me an Angel” by Real Life, background to The Greatest Pointless Montage Ever in Fred Savage’s Super Mario 3-fueled opus The Wizard. The Eurotrash band Zeromancer did a similar sendup of this tune in 2003, and it was just as pointless. There’s nothing from this band that hasn’t already been done by someone else – or in Hall’s case, by himself. It’s not horrible, but if you’ve heard it all before, why bother? — Brett Emerson

Autechre – Quaristice Autechre is a talented electronic group which will nonetheless be stuck with a niche fan base, namely Aphex Twin fans who want to mellow out. There’s very little to dislike on this album; the sonic experimentation is well executed, drawing together the expected unexpected loops and samples and mangling them into coherence.The problem with this field of soundcraft is that if there’s not a video accompanying it, where demons howl at old ladies or supermodels get their faces superimposed by a grinning creep, the mainstream’s not gonna come knocking. It’s just too hard to request songs like "90101-5l-l" on the radio. The good thing is that this group seems to have accepted the fringe aspect of their work, and don’t let it get in the way. Sometimes the inevitable pop-up track does show up and suck a minute or two into what amounts to static, but largely the tracks stick to stimuli. Quaristice isn’t going to attract listeners beyond the established electronic seekers, yet those fans won’t be disappointed, so everything works out. — Brett Emerson

$1 Burgers Mondays & Tuesdays 4 PM - 8 PM

19

1101 La Crosse St.

March 27, 2008

I'm Jonesin' for a crossword “Pretty Cheesy”--any way you prepare it.

By Matt Jones Across 1 1970s PBS show hosted by LeVar Burton 6 Prom rental 10 Drug carrier across the border 14 “Leave Britney ___!” (Chris Crocker catchphrase) 15 City where Camus’s “The Plague” takes place 16 Operating system option 17 Fall heavily, as into a chair 18 Main man 20 It holds your logs 22 Lithium-___ battery 23 Hallow ending 24 “___ Nacht in Venedig” (Strauss opera) 25 Bright aquarium fish 27 Ovine opinion 29 Spinners for the party 32 Fruity dessert 36 “Frida” subject 39 Enjoyed endives 40 Fabric also called “art silk” 41 Modern English hit of 1982 44 Rapper who had a role in “Chicago” 45 “___ You Experienced” (classic rock album) 46 Twin surname 49 Company that introduced non-stick cookware 52 Blowhard’s feature 53 Bad, in Bogota 55 Minimal amount of self-esteem 59 3 for 27, 4 for 64, etc.

60 Like some Greek columns 61 Kid who gets away with a lot 62 “Dirty Jobs” host Mike 63 Back burner location 64 Formal letter opener 65 Hoodwink 66 Number of seasons “Arrested Development” lasted Down 1 “Baby Beluga” singer 2 “Scrubs” character ___ Reid 3 Recurring role for Damon 4 “This round’s ___!”

5 Philadelphia soup variety 6 Lindsay nominated for two “Worst Actress” Razzie Awards

Answers to Issue 109's "Take a Bow"

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

in 2007 for two roles in the same movie 7 ___-Z (Camaro model) 8 Arcade emulator program 9 Single-speed bike feature 10 Animated Disney film with George Takei 11 Coalescing around, as a cause 12 “___ Capades” (“South Park” episode) 13 PC file extension used with the “run” command 19 Indo-___ Lanka Peace Accord 21 Bound 26 Like some tales 27 Joan’s “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” costar 28 Banda ___ (city devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake) 30 Glow by ___ (celebrity women’s fragrance) 31 Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-___ 33 Dragon’s pad 34 Doctor who must’ve been a whiz in med school?

35 Art Spiegelman graphic novel 36 ___ Jong Il 37 “The Party Faithful” author Sullivan 38 Candy in a Ben & Jerry’s flavor 42 Hotel that lent its

name to a salad 43 Ranger Smith’s nemesis 47 It shares the same keys as a G major scale 48 Home-grown 50 Guitar neck features 51 ___ Lingus (Irish airline) 52 Ford flop introduced 50 years ago 54 School for French students 55 Daughter once nicknamed “TomKitten” by the media 56 “When We ___” (2001 Janet Jackson song) 57 Battleship guess 58 Chris of “Law & Order” 59 “Jericho” network ©2008 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute.

Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0351.

20

Gods Behaving Badly Marie Phillips (2007) The prospect of ancient Greek gods causing trouble in modern day England is certainly intriguing, yet it’s hard to say if this execution is ultimately satisfying. Rather than fight upstream against eons of cultural archetypes, Phillips rolls with them, playing the gods as base, elemental holdovers from another time. It’s funny to see Apollo as a moronic, self-obsessed fraud psychic, his twin Artemis as a professional dog-walker (and habitually teased virgin), Aphrodite as a phone-sex worker, or Eros (the Greek equivalent of Cupid) as her overmothered, Born-Again Christian son.Yet there’s a real push towards stereotype in some, if not all, of the characters, which never gets fully excised at the end of the story. Athena is a glasses wearing nerd who can’t speak in plain English, while the surprisingly pleasant Ares, god of war, spends most of the book blowing up pieces of the former Soviet bloc. Aside from Neil and Alice, two humans (and at first, two of the biggest pussies ever) who find themselves sucked into this mythological vortex, only Artemis and Eros show any sign of growth whatsoever. Despite a world-altering adventure, everyone else seems to go back to business as usual at the end.

There is a very interesting swerve which happens in the second act, however, which follows the natural scheming of the asshole gods to their natural conclusion – the Underworld. Unlike the rather stringent sets of behaviors encountered thus far, death is approached with remarkable imagination.The ferryman now operates out of a subway station, the dead are mostly employed in order to prevent spiritual atrophy, and each grain of the beautiful (if sterile) architecture requires the full willpower of one spirit to maintain. Cleaning and language are unnecessary, yet entertainers and gamers are highly prized. It’s a weird and very welcome turn on the conventional account of Hades.

Despite my reservations, this is a very likable book. To be fair, I’m glad Phillips didn’t swing to the opposite end and make the Olympians sensitive, modern, Friends-watching twits in sweater vests. There’s a severe and disturbing lack of consequence to the tale, sure, going so far as to have the humans conveniently forget how cruel many of the gods were to them during the story. The style, though incompletely, does compensate for this fault. There is a great deal of fun to be found in this book, should one not get caught up on the conventions of human morality. But that’s what gods are all about, anyway – suspension of disbelief.

— Brett Emerson

A gentleman never makes himself the center of attention. his goal is to make life easier, not just for himself, but for his friends, his acquaintances and the world at large. Because he is a gentleman, he does not see this as a burden. instead, it is a challenge he faces eagerly everyday.

Õ

bar & grill

Bibliophile

Chances are, Spring is not the only thing that has sprung!

DVD, Video, Clothing, Novelties, Gifts, Lingerie, Tobacco Shop

Downtown Book & Video 72 E Third St. 507-453-9031

Intimate Treasures 310 4th St. Downtown 608-782-3287

Downtown Book & Video 220 SW First Ave 507-252-1997

The Highball, a "long" drink of gin or whiskey with ginger ale or carbonated water, is usually served between meals. It is a leisurely drink, designed to refresh rather than to lend extravagant stimulation.

Gentleman - Bridges, John. How to be a Gentleman. Rutledge Hill Press for Brookes Brothers. 1998 Ladies - Ames, Elinor. Book of Modern Etiquette. P.J. Collier & Sons Corporation. 1940

21

March 27, 2008

Happenings Art galleries BLUFFLAND BLOOM & BREW 119 S. 4th St., La Crosse (608) 782-BREW Monthly Culture Shock show, featuring live art as well as drawings, paintings, photography, and prints by local artists.

HEIDER CENTER FOR THE ARTS 405 East Hamlin Street West Salem, WI 608-786-1220 x 4 http://www.wsalem.k12.wi.us/ Heider.html PUMP HOUSE REGIONAL CENTER FOR THE ARTS Open noon-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and noon-4 p.m. Saturday.

No admission charge, donations accepted. Features exhibits of local artists and performances.

119 King St., La Crosse 608-785-1434 www.thepumphouse.org.

SATORI ARTS Unique hand crafted jewelry, Mississippi River pearls, ancient Chinese artifacts, Custom-made jewelry, original art works, and a variety of unique gifts.

201 Pearl Street, La Crosse 608-785-2779 STORY PEOPLE www.storypeople.com 110 Winnebago St, Decorah, IA 563-382-8060 UW-L ART GALLERY The gallery displays works by students, faculty, regional and nationally-known artists in all areas of art.

The gallery is on the first floor of the Center for the Arts located at the corner of 16th and Pine on the UW-L campus.

VISIONS OF LIGHT Stained Glass 129 4th St S, La Crosse 608-793-1032

Theaters, cont.

LA CROSSE COMMUNITY THEATRE www.lacrossecommunitytheatre.org 118 5th Ave N La Crosse, WI 608-784-9292

COMMONWEAL THEATRE www.commonwealtheatre.org/ 208 Parkway Avenue North, Lanesboro, MN 55949 800-657-7025

VITERBO UNIVERSITY

Women’s Softball: Sun, April 6 Ashford University @ La Crosse Noon

Men’s Baseball:

Sports UW-L

Women’s Softball: Fri, April 4 UW-Platteville @ home 3 p.m.

Women’s and Men’s Track: Fri. April 18 Phil Esten Challenge @ home 1 p.m.

Women’s Tennis: Tues. April 15 Luther College @ home 3:30 p.m.

Men’s Tennis: Sun. April 6 Wartburg College @ Winona 3 p.m.

Men’s Baseball: Sat. April 5 UW-Platteville @ home Noon WINONA STATE

Women’s Softball: Tues, April 8 Concordia St. Paul @ home 2 p.m.

Fri, April 11 Finlandia University @ La Crosse 2 p.m.

Sat, April 12 Iowa Wesleyan @ La Crosse 1 p.m.

performances LA CROSSE COMMUNITY THEATRE: What: The Sound of Music.

Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics

by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse Date: April 25-27, May 1-4, and 8-10 at 7:30 p.m. May 11 at 1:00 p.m.

Where: La Crosse Community Theatre WINONA THEATRE: What: Medea Date: April 3-5 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Winona State University Performing Arts Center (main stage)

Art Exhibits ABSTRACT PRINTS AND VARIOUS WORKS

ongoing

Wed, April 16 Concordia St. Paul @ home Noon

By James (La Crosse) 608-785-2637 Prints by Dr. Seuss; works by Dali, Chagall, Ouida Touchon, the latest by 21st century talent, and more.

LUTHER COLLEGE

“WHO IS A CITIZEN? WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?”

Men’s Baseball:

Men’s Baseball:

Theaters

Sports, cont.

Wed, April 9 Viterbo @ home 2 p.m.

Women’s Softball: Sun, April 6 UW-La Crosse @ La Crosse 1 p.m.

Art Exhibits, cont.

SENSORY OVERLOAD: LIGHT, MOTION, SOUND, AND THE OPTICAL IN ART SINCE 1945

ongoing Milwaukee Art Museum 414-224-3200 European and American art, including Stanley Landsman’s Infinity Chamber, which has not been on view for nearly twenty years. Also featured is Erwin Redl’s Matrix, a 25 x 50 foot LED installation.

PAINTING, POTTERY, PHOTOS, JEWELRY

ongoing Edland Art Gallery (La Crosse) 608-785-2787

SERVEWARE; JEWELRY; HAND-WROUGHT IRON, ALUMINUM, AND PEWTER PIECES

ongoing State Street Gallery (La Crosse) 608-782-0101

The first in a year-long series of exhibitions and programs examining the role of art and artists in a democracy. Featuring 30 paintings, photographs, and prints from various artists.

PERT’ NEAR SANDSTONE

April 4 Steyer Opera House Hotel Winneshiek (Decorah, IA) Doors: 8:00 p.m.

Show: 8:30 p.m.

Admission: $7.00 Presale tickets available at Hotel Winneshiek front desk March 3rd, or by emailing benji@theinspiredmedia.com Pert’ Near Sandstone play a harddriving acoustic music in the oldtime vein, but with a fresh sense and new-time urban grit. They approach the American stringband tradtion with reverence, infusing their own ideas and character to deliver a sound and style uniquely their own.

ANNUAL PUMP HOUSE WIZM RADIO AUCTION

April 5-6 Get ready for the Annual Pump House-WIZM Radio Auction! Tune your radio to WIZM-AM 1410 from 1-5 pm on both April 5 and 6 and set your speed dial to the radio auction phone number: 608-785-7880.

For a list of items available in the auction, see our Radio Auction page

“A WEAVER’S JOURNEY”

through April 28 Pump House (La Crosse) Phyllis Scarbrough showcases some of the finest handmade baskets around. She has woven over 3,000 baskets, covering over 300 styles.

LA CROSSE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ART SHOW

May 4 through May 31 Pump House (La Crosse) Kader Room & Front Gallery La Crosse students will display their art, showcasing a variety of media.

ongoing Frederick R. Weisman Museum (University of Minnesota)

Upcoming Events

WRAP (WISCONSIN REGIONAL ARTISTS PROGRAM) EVENT

June 6 through June 30 Pump House, Kader Room Variety of Media. Workshop is June 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

MOON BOOT POSSE SHOW

April 12 Coalition Skate Park (La Crosse) SPRING FLEA MARKET

April 13 La Crosse Center South Hall 608-797-6647 Admission: $2.50 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Western Wisconsin’s largest flea market!

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM DROP AND SHOP

April 18 5:30-8:00 p.m.

Children’s Museum (La Crosse) (608) 784-2652 Admission: $7 per child. Includes snack.

Drop your 3-12 year olds at the Museum while you shop and dine.

They will play at the Museum under the supervision of Museum staff and volunteers.

Trying to get the word out about your event?

Place a free listing in Happenings and make it easy on yourself.

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

copyeditor@secondsupper.com

22

What to Watch for...

Õ

BETWEEN THE BLUFFS BEER AND CHEESE FESTIVAL

April 19 City Brewery Hospitality Center 608-785-4820 Sampling of various beers made throughout the state of Wisconsin. Approximately 20-25 breweries present.

3 RIVERS ROCKFEST

April 26 La Crosse Center South Hall 6:00 p.m. (doors open at 5:00 p.m.)

Admission: $11.50 Local bands Burnt Brownies, Cheech, Derek Ramnarace w/Soapbox Project will perform.

FUN RUN FOR EVERYONE

April 27 UW-L stadium (rain site is Mitchell Hall Fieldhouse) Check-in/registration from 9:30-10:00 a.m.

All persons with and without disabilities, any age are free to attend. (The major focus of the event is for all persons to participate in a community-wide physical activity).

1.5 miles through UW-L’s campus (fun activities and stations along the course by FSM club).

Refreshments and the Big “E” inflatables following the event Entry Fee: Includes registration and t-shirt (t-shirts available only for pre-registration which is by April 10, 2008) $10 per person/$20 for family of 3/$15 for family of 2/$25 for family of 4 Pre-registration is highly encouraged by Wed., April 10, 2008 Please assist us also by trying to earn pledges and you can receive a free pedometer if you earn $50 or more!

If you have any further questions, need more information, want to register, or just want to donate money to support the program, please contact Sadi Sabatino at Sabatino. sadi@students.uwlax.edu or call 507-227-1626.

PRAIRIE SMOKE CONCERT

May 3 Pump House 7:30 Admission: $12 advance/$15 day of show Prairie House combines the influences of American folk and the Celtic traditions of Scottish and Irish aires, jigs and reels. Come enjoy this quintet play the hammered and mountain dulcimer, fiddle, banjo, flute, bass, guitar and mandolin. Celebrate May’s arrival with us!

23

March 27, 2008

COMMUNITY SERVICE [ Area LA CROSSE All Star Lanes 4735 Mormon Coulee

Alpine Inn W5715 Bliss rd.

Sunday

Monday

3 games for $5 starts at 8 p.m.

3 games for $5 starts at 8 p.m.

bucket special

Bud Night 6 - CL: $1.75 bottles $5 pitchers

Alumni

620 Gillette st.

Barrel Inn 2005 West ave.

2 for 1 cans & bottles during Packer games

Beef & Etc.

1203 La Crosse st.

Big Al’s

115 S 3rd st.

Brothers 306 Pearl st.

Chuck’s

1101 La Crosse st.

Fiesta Mexicana 5200 Mormon Coulee

Fox Hollow

N3287 County OA

Cosmic Bowl & Karaoke starts at 9 p.m.

Cosmic Bowl starts at 9 p.m.

6 - CL $2.50 Sparks

3 p.m. - midnight 25 cent hot wings $1 shots of Dr.

meatball sandwich meal: $6.15 2 dogs meal: $ 5.25

Italian beef meal: $6.15 Chicago chili dog: $3.45

grilled chicken sandwich meal: $5.29 Polish sausage meal: $3.99

hamburger meal: $3.69 cheeseburger meal: $3.89

$1.25 make your own tacos, $4.75 taco salad $2.25 margaritas, $2 off large taco pizza

$2.25 burgers, $2.60 cheeseburgers, $2 off large pizza, $1 fries with any pizza

soup or salad bar FREE with entree or sandwich until 3 p.m. ($3.95 by itself)

closed

HAPPY HOUR 3 PM - 8 PM

Thirsty Tuesday

3-7 happy hour

$2 Silos

$6.00 AUCD

$2.50 Blatz vs. Old Style pitchers

10 cent wings (9 - CL) $1 High Life bottles $1.50 rail mixers $2 Guinness pints

Wristband Night

$5.50 $5.00 batterfried cod, all you can eat fries, beans, & garlic wings bread $4.50 domestic pitchers barrel parties at cost pepper & egg sandwich meal: $4.50, fish sandwich meal: $4.99, Italian sausage meal: $6.15

Italian beef meal: $6.15 2 Chicago dog meal: $3.45

$6.75 shrimp dinner

$1.50 bloody marys 11 a.m. - 4 p.m

$3.00 Captain mixers/ mojitos $2 Cherry Bombs $1 Bazooka Joes

HAPPY HOUR 4 - 7

Martini Madness $2 off all martinis

closed

$1 Dr. shots $3 Jager Bombs

2 for 1 taps

7 - CL $1 domestic 12 oz $2 Stoli mixers

7 - CL Tequila’s chips & salsa, $2 Coronas, $2.50 Mike’s, Mike-arita

7 - midnight Ladies: 2 for 1 Guys: $1.50 Coors and Kul Light bottles

7 - midnight $1 rail mixers $2 Bacardi mixers

7 - midnight $2 Malibu madness $2 pineapple upsidedown cake

$3.00 Domestic Pitchers, $2.00 Shots of Cuervo, Rumpleminz, Goldschlager

Mexican Monday $2.00 Corona, Corona Light, Cuervo

$3.00 Bacardi mixers/ mojitos $2 Cherry Bombs $1 Bazooka Joes

50 cent taps 4 - 7 (increases 50 cents per hour) $1 rails

All day, everyday: $1.00 Shots of Doctor, $2.00 Cherry Bombs, $1.75 Silos of Busch Light/Coors $.50 domestic taps, $1 microbrews, $3 domestic pitchers, $6 microbrew pitchers

$3.00 Patron Shots

$2 Tuesdays, including $2 bottles, import taps, beer pong, apps, single shot mixers, featured shots, and 50 cent taps

$1.25 per pound wings (8-CL) $1 shot of the week, $1 PBR, rails, $1.50 Rolling Rock, $2 Miller lite

$2.00 Cruzan Rum Mixers, $2.50 Jameson Shots, $3.00 Mixers

$2.00 Captain Mixers

Wristband Night

$1 Kul Light cans

Topless Tuesday

Ladies Night buy one, get one free wear a bikini, drink free

Karaoke $1 shot specials

live DJ $1 shot specials

chicken & veggie fajitas for two

football night domestic beer: $1.50 Mexican beer: $2.00

chicken primavera

shrimp burrito

chili verde

Ask server for details

Build your own Bloody Mary 16oz Mug - $4.00

Homemade Pizza & PItcher of Beer $9.00

1908 Campbell rd.

$1.25 BURGERS

Bucket of Domestic Cans 5 for $9.00

25 Cent Wings

Second Supper vol. 8, issue 109

HAPPY HOUR 3 - 8

beer pong 6 p.m. $8.95 16 oz steak

free wings 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

HAPPY HOUR 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

$8.95 16 oz. steak $8.95 1/2 lb. fish platter

Buy one gyro get one half price

free baklava, ice cream or sundae with meal

$1.25 domestic taps buy one burger get one half price

buy one appetizer get one half price

GREEK ALL DAY appetizer half price with meal

HAPPY HOUR EVERYDAY 3 -7 and 9 - 11

Bloody Mary specials 10 - 2

JB’s Speakeasy

Karaoke

HAPPY HOUR EVERYDAY 3 - 6

HAPPY HOUR 6 AM - 9 AM

$5.99 gyro fries & soda

$2.00 Malibu, $2.50 Jaeger, $3.00 Jaeger Bombs

$2 Bacardi flavor mixers $2 jumbo Captain mixers

$4 full pint Irish Car Bomb

Gracie’s

717 Rose st.

Import night starts at 7 p.m.

3 games for $5 starts at 7 p.m.

bucket night 6 for $9

1904 Campbell rd.

127 Marina dr.

Buck Night starts at 6 p.m.

1/4 barrel giveaway 8-11 $1 burgers

Goal Post

Huck Finn’s

Saturday

$5.00 all you can eat wings

223 Pearl st.

411 3rd st.

Friday

$5.00 BBQ ribs & fries

Coconut Joe’s Dan’s Place

Thursday

$1.00 softshell tacos

meat or marinara spaghetti: $3.45 Italian sausage: $4.95

114 5th ave.

318 Pearl st.

Tuesday Wednesday

16 oz top sirloin $6.75 22 oz t-bone $9.75 blue cheese stuffed sirloin $7.75 Jack Daniels sirloin tips $7

free pitcher of beer or soda with large pizza

The Cavalier CheapShots

food & drink specials ]

$2 off all pitchers

6 domestic bottles for $10

HAPPY HOUR 3 - 6 24

COMMUNITY SERVICE [ Area LA CROSSE The Joint 324 Jay st.

Sunday $1.50 PBR $1 shots of Dr.

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday

HAPPY HOUR 6 AM - 9 AM

$2 SVEDKA mixers & Miller Lite bottles

223 Pearl st.

123 3rd st.

come in and find out ... you’ll be glad you did

Loons

hamburger $1.25 cheeseburger $150

1128 La Crosse st.

Nutbush

3264 George st.

Ringside 223 Pearl st.

Schmidty’s 3119 State rd.

Shooter’s 120 S 3rd st.

closed

25 wings: $5 bucket of beer: $12 during Packers games

closed

Pizza & pitcher

closed

breakfast buffet $9.95 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

$1 cans Hamm’s

Thursday

KARAOKE $1.25 domestic pints $2 double rails $3 double calls $2 ALL bottles

$1 taps $1 rails bacon cheeseburger, fries, mug of beer: $4.50 drummies, fries, mug of beer: $5

chicken filet, fries, pop: $4.75 chicken filet, fries, beer: $5 mushroom/swiss, fries, pop: $4.25, mushroom/swiss, fries, beer: $4.50

jumbo pints (9-CL) $1 rails, domestic taps $2 calls, import/micro taps $3 top shelf mixers

Wristband Night

$5.00 for 25 wings

AUCE fish fry DJ 9 - CL

BUCK WED burger, hot dog or brat

HAPPY HOUR 4 PM - 7 PM $2 mixers, taps, bottles $1 off all burgers/ Hoop Day: make a basket, buy one sandwich/burger sandwiches, meal’s on us. Z93 Comget one half price bottomless fries edy Night @ 8 p.m

$1 cans PBR

$1 cans Busch Light

$1 cans Busch Light

$1 cans Old Style

HAPPY HOUR 10 AM - 12, 4 PM - 6 PM $2 Spotted Cow & DT Brown pints

Bucket Night 5 for $9

Top Shots

Fiesta Night 7 - 12 $2 tequila shots $2.50 margaritas

$1.50 PBR bottles $1.50 Dr. shots after 7 p.m.

$1.25 Lite taps all day $1.50 rails 10 - 1

$1.75 domestic bottles 7 - 12

5 domestic bottles for $10, $2 Bacardi mixers, $1.50 rail vodka mixers 10 -1

$1 Point special bottles

$2.50 pints Bass & Guinness

$1.75 domestic bottles

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday

$2 Rolling Rocks $2 domestic beer

8 - CL $1.50 rails $1.75 Bud cans

$1 shots of Dr. $2.50 Polish

$1 domestic taps $3 Jager Bombs

$2 u-call-it (except top shelf)

Family pack: 10 tacos & 4 sodas for $14.99

burritos on the go: buy a big one and get a free soda

Speedy tacos $1.50

gyro, chips, soda $5.99

3 chicken fry taquitos $3.99

Sunday

Monday

LA CRESCENT

Crescent Inn 444 Chestnut st.

Speedy Taco 301 Kistler dr.

WINONA Betty Jo Byoloski’s

66 Center st.

Brothers 129 W 3rd st.

Godfather’s 30 Walnut st.

25

$2.25 Pearl st. pints $1.50 PBR bottles

Tuesday Wednesday

$1 cans Miller High Life Light $1 Dr. shots $3 16 oz Captain mixers

$2 Long Islands, PBR bottles, Captain mixers

closed

half price appetizers, Import Club Night: discounts on all micros & imports $1 martinis $2 mojitos $3 margaritas & Michelob Golden pitchers

family buffet 5 -8 kids under 10 pay .45 cents per year of age

all-u-can-eat spaghetti all day $5.45 25 cent hot wings 4 - 10

tenderloin tips, shrooms, fries or potato, salad, roll $9.95 50 cents off top shelf liquor

HAPPY HOUR 3 PM - 8 PM 10 cent wings, $3 filled 2 for 1 mug ($1 tap refills, $2 anything rail refills) $1 High Life 9 p.m. - close bottles/kamikaze shots

any jumbo, large, or large 1 topping pizza medium pizza up to 5 $9.99 toppings: $11.99 (get 2nd large for $5)

$1 cans PBR $1 Dr. shots $3 16 oz Captain mixers

$2.75 deluxe Bloodys ‘til 7, $4.50 lite pitchers 7 - 12

$1.75 rails $1 PBR mugs

Thursday

Thursday

Friday

free pitcher of pop or domestic beer with large pizza discounts on all domestic beer $1 O-Bombs/ Bazooka Joes, Wristband Night

Saturday $2.50 Captain $2.50 Jager Bombs & Polish

Fiesta burrito $6.99

Nachos Supreme $5.49

Friday

Saturday

HAPPY HOUR 3:15 - 6:15 2 for 1 burgers $1 off Bloodys & Screwdrivers

$2 happy hour all day long!

LUNCH BUFFET $6.45

$2 Bacardi mixers

317 Pearl st.

AUCE all day $9.99 walleye/perch/catfish, mashed potatoes/fries coleslaw/salad

$1.25 pints during Badgers games DJ 9 - CL

LUNCH SPECIALS CHANGE DAILY

$4 domestic pitchers

Yesterdays

$3 Captain mixers $3 Bacardi Mixers $3 jumbo Long Islands $3 jumbo Long Islands fish sandwich, fries, mug of beer: $5 fish sandwich, fries, pop: $4.75

happy hour all day Packer games: $1.50 Coors Light Silver, $1 Dr. shots, free brats

137 S 4th st.

$5 double vodka energy drink $2 shots of Goldschlager

cheeseburger, fries, pop: $4 cheeseburger, fries, beer: $4.25 Philly or Reuben, fries, pop: $5.75, Philly or Reuben, fries, beer: $6

HAPPY HOUR 3 - 6

$1 tacos, Ladies Night 2 for 1, 9 - CL

Saturday $1.50 PBR $1 shots of Dr.

Tailgators 1019 S 10th st.

Friday

$1.50 PBR $2 Love Stories $5 Wu Tang Teas $1 shots of the DOC!

Legend’s The Library

Õ food & drink specials ]

all day: all-u-can-eat fish $8.95 lunch: fish sandwich & fries $5.45 $2.50 Captain Mixers $1.00 Root Beer Barrels $6.00 “Buck-its” (6 beers for $6.00)

Prime Rib specials, one child eats free with one adult entree 4 - 10: house wines $2.50 $2.50 Bacardi Mixers $5.00 Fishbowls $1.00 O-bombs & Bazooka Joes

March 27, 2008

Ã

Entertainment Directory 4/3-4/9 Sunday, April 6

La Crosse

Popcorn Tavern The New Blend

Thursday, April 3 Dan’s Place Live DJ

The Recovery Room Live DJ

Nutbush Live DJ Popcorn Tavern Terrapin Shells

9:00

Monday, April 7

9:00

George St. Pub Adam Palm’s Open Jam

10:00

The Warehouse A Skylit Drive, Oh Sleeper, Memphis May Fire, Four Letter Lie, Before Their Eyes, The Hottness

6:00 Freighthouse Adam Palm 8:30 All Star Lanes Karaoke My Second Home Karaoke Player’s Live DJ Nutbush Live DJ Popcorn Tavern Steez

All Star Lanes Karaoke Players Live DJ Nutbush Live DJ

10:00

Minneapolis population

9:00

10:00 10:00 10:00

Thurs, 4/3

The Black Keys

First Avenue

Fri, 4/11

Caribou

Triple Rock Social Club

Sat, 4/12

Tuesday, April 8

Hot Chip

First Avenue

Fri, 4/18

The Warehouse Here I Come Falling, Oceana, Confide, Take The Crown

Reverend Horton Heat, Nashville Pussy

First Avenue

Sun, 4/20

Sol Spectre

Mr. Roberts

Fri, 4/11

Blue Man Group

Kohl Center

Wed, 4/23

Tegan & Sara

Barrymore Theatre

Tues, 5/6

The Avett Brothers

High Noon Saloon

Fri, 5/9

Javier Trejo

Stout Ale House

Sat, 4/5

Public Property

The Waterfront Bar & Grill

Sat, 4/12

Pert’ Near Sandstone

The Waterfront Bar & Grill

Sun, 4/20

Great American Taxi

The Waterfront Bar & Grill

Tues, 4/22

Ellis Paul

Shank Hall

Thurs, 4/3

Van Halen

Bradley Center

Mon, 4/7

Bitch

Stonefly Brewery

Fri, 4/11

The Illness Project

The Bremen Cafe

Sat, 4/12

Etta James

Northern Lights Theater

Wed, 4/20 26

10:00

7:00

Nutbush Live DJ

10:00

Popcorn Tavern Paulie

10:00

Loon’s Comedy Night

8:30

Library Karaoke

9:00

Coconut’s Live DJ

10:00

Longhorn Karaoke

10:00

8:30

Player’s Karaoke

10:00

9:00

Popcorn Tavern Brownie’s Open Jam

10:00

10:00

The Joint Wu-Tang Wednesday

10:00

10:00

Popcorn Tavern New FunkSupper Mafia vol. 8, issue 10:00 Second 109

387,970

First Avenue

Popcorn Tavern Shawn’s Open Jam

Wednesday, April 9 9:00

Nada Surf, What Made Milwaukee Famous

9:00

Saturday, April 5 Freighthouse Adam Palm & Joe Gantzer

Just A Roadie Away...

10:00

Friday, April 4

Ã

Got a show?

Let us know.

We'll put it in, yo. copyeditor@secondsupper.com

Madison population

223,389

Menomonie population

14,937

Milwaukee population

602,782

Õ

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March 27, 2008

Second Supper, 3/13/08

27

La Crosseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Largest Sports Bar

Watch the Final Four

Watch the Brewers

Includes: $2.00 Domestic and Import Bottles $2.00 Import Taps $2.00 Games of Beer Pong $2.00 Appetizers $2.00 Single Shot Mixers $2.00 Featured Shots and $.50 Taps!!!

April 5 R.P.S.

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