vol. 12 | issue 11 march 11 - april 8
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
From the very first day that I walked into our old offices in the UTech building, I was drawn to this publication’s scrappy, underdog approach and thoroughly inclusive heart. As an editor, I’ve watched us grow from a 4 person staff to the awesome team that we have today, and I couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come. The Wake has always been committed to covering the Arts, but I’d like to think that in the last few years we’ve really stepped our game up. As a Minneapolis native, I’m naturally a huge booster of our local scene, and I made it a personal goal to focus on telling the stories of young, up-and-coming artists, and creative minds outside of the margins that call these fair cities their home. But once we started digging into our community we realized that there was no way we could cover everyone—this town is far too rich with talent.
Dear Wake fans, As I start to work my way into the final months of my time at The Wake, I can't help but get a little misty-eyed. I've been with the magazine since the Fall of 2009 and it’s been a long, strange, and thoroughly wonderful trip.
Enter: The S&V Issue. Think of it as a chance for The Wake to get you caught up on all of the great bands, movies, fashion, food, and culture pouring out of Minneapolis and St. Paul, while hopefully giving you a perspective on national trends in the process.
Production Manager
Alex Lauer
Sean Quinn
Managing Editor
Graphic Designers
Cities Editor
The Wake Student Magazine 126 Coffman Memorial Union 300 Washington Avenue SE
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Editor-in-Chief
Alyssa Bluhm
Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly independent magazine and registered student organization produced by and for the students of the University of Minnesota.
Sara Glesne
Sean Quinn, Katie Schalow, Taylor Wichrowski, Sondra Vine
Art Director Dan Forke
Voices Editor Justin Miller
Social Media Manager Tara Mrachek
Sound & Vision Editor
Web Editor
Zach McCormick
Sam Gordon
Obituaries Editor Kelsey Schwartz
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Staff Writers Courtney Bade, Tommy Finney, Tyler Lauer, Logan Wroge
www.wakemag.org The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and James DeLong. The Wake is published with support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress (online at www.campusprogress.org).
DISCLAIMER the purpose of the Wake is to provide a forum in which students can voice their opinions. opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as a whole. to join the conversation email alauer@ wakemag.org.
Read this issue. Go out and buy records. Buy tickets to an independent film. Support your local gallery, and the neighborhood restaurant too. We’ve got a lot to be proud of! Keep up the good fight.
Zach McCormick S&V Editor
ps. The Wake is turning 11! Come celebrate with us at the Triple Rock on Friday, March 29th Find all the info @ facebook.com/TheWakeMagazine
12:11
It’s funny that in the age of nearly unlimited access to the Arts through the internet, the most common complaint that I
Editorial
©2009 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights reserved.
hear from college kids is “there is nothing to do,” or “nothing new." Hopefully our all-seeing eye can help rid our little corner of campus from that kind of bullshit attitude.
This Issue
Business Business Manager Chee Xiong
Advertising Manager Matthew Cermak
Advisory Board James DeLong, Kevin Dunn, Courtney Lewis, Eric Price, Morgan Mae Schultz, Kay Steiger, Mark Wisser
@The_Wake fbook /TheWakeMagazine wake-mag.tumblr.com
What's Inside?
Cover Artists
Girls In Bikins Robbing Fat Tourists p. 4
Joe Buchholz and Dan Forke
Superhero Summer p. 5
Photographers Caitlyn Bell, Dan Forke, Kara Hakanson, Justin Sengly
Illustrators John Barnett, Martha Danks, Dan Forke, Lindsey Puccio, Justin Sengly, Jennifer Yelk
Contributing Writers Courtney Bade, Grace Birnstengel, Jane Campbell, Tommy Finney, Jerod Greenisen, Kara Hakanson, Beth Ireland, Ethan Lauer, Tyler Lauer, Zach McCormick, Kelcie McKenney, Sean McSteen, Sarah Mevissen, Justin Miller, Brian Pricco, Sam Schaust, Logan Wroge
Are You Popular? p. 8 Q&A: Teenage Moods p. 10 Art History Lesson: Life Sucks Die p. 12 Q&A: Gloss p. 14 A Nice Idea Every Day p. 16 Six Reviews p. 18 Staff Recommendations p. 20
Film
Girls In Bikinis Robbing Fat Tourists: Harmony Korine Takes On Spring Break By Tyler Lauer
Initial Insanity: Sucking on tampons dipped in fruit punch. Subway riders giving change to a legless nomad on a skateboard. Strolling the mean but bright streets of NYC, pissing and chatting about taking v-cards as though simply complementing the pleasantness of the weather. “Summer Nights” from Grease updated for the shameless generation. All of this and more appear in the screenplay Harmony Korine wrote for Larry Clark—at the age of 18. This movie, Kids, went on to gross more than 20 million on a 1.5 million budget, providing the only credentials Korine would ever need to make his way in the art world. Needless to say, Harmony Korine is controversial. It’s not that he’s trying to be, like Sasha Baron Cohen or Quentin Tarantino, he’s just trying to make work he wants to see. He won’t allow final cuts by anyone except himself. He doesn’t have an audience in mind. In the case of Spring Breakers, Korine is just lucky that his taste has finally realigned with Hollywood’s. Since Kids, Korine’s work has become ever more associated with contemporary art and less with mainstream cinema. His projects, in the wake of being thrust into the limelight (see: Letterman interviews), have included:
After looking at his work, it’s unclear why anyone would consider letting him work with Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. It seems career suicide—or just plain suicide. Love him, hate him, or think he’s just the biggest bullshit-artist ever, at least get to know him. After all, he’s taking Disney Princess v-cards.
Spring Breakers: “It was like an image I had in my mind of girls on the beach with ski masks and guns, robbing tourists. That was the very first thing.” This is how Harmony Korine described the literal vision that led to Spring Breakers at the Toronto International Film Festival. Even if Korine wasn’t at the helm, Spring Breakers would still sound promising: a bunch of young girls think up a plan for armed robbery in order to finance a spring break trip, only to get mixed up with a rapper/gangster named “Alien.” Add to that Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson straight outta ABC Family, Rachel Korine (Korine’s 16-years-his-junior wife), and James Franco as “Alien”—who wouldn’t want to see that? Seemingly an unbeatable team, Korine may feel like an unnecessary addition, even a possible detriment–especially to the hot-off-the-press Disney stars’ new careers–in his oddball auteur sensibilities that don’t equate to smashes at the box office. That, and the fact that he’s the poster boy for ADD.
I believe that this supreme individuality is actually what makes him the perfect director for this project, shown in his statement: “I didn’t want to make a movie that was an exposé on spring break. I wanted to make a film that was more like a feeling.” If a movie about spring break was being written and directed by The Hangover or American Pie guys, you’d expect a lot of boobs and gross-out humor. I say, if you want boobs, there’s an infinite amount on the Internet. If you want gross-out, dumb-comedy, 21 & Over just came out and I heard The Hangover lll is slated for a summer release. We don’t need more of these. It’s an oversaturated market. That being said, a recent Rotten Tomatoes reviewer called Spring Breakers “all surface and sham,” seemingly putting it in the category of not just bro-boner movies, but all flashy pop films of today. Classic style over substance. This comment was meant as criticism, but Korine’s intention in all of this is to illuminate the surface, considering it in and of itself. In a world of big budget Hollywood sequels, CGI, and not just makeup but constant retouching, it’s about time someone made a movie examining the surface. The controversy surrounding this movie is the idea—Korine standing joyfully on red carpets beside these impeccable Disney Princesses. They’re flashing their innocent smiles for the last time before their tween audiences sneak into the R-rated movie and see their idols cast in a harsher light, or, maybe, a more sympathetic light.
-Gummo: His directorial debut—seemingly railing against the hick-chic editorials of the 90s and movies like Sling Blade by presenting an unsettling version of Middle America while polarizing audiences in its rebellion against classic form and taste. -Mister Lonely: A bigger budget consideration of performance and nunnery that flopped, leading Korine to despise even more the confines that come with more money (and thus more producer opinions). -Trash Humpers: The VHS-cut, found-object-aesthetic depiction of literal “trash humpers” (aka Korine and friends dressing up in old-people masks and getting method by filming constantly while sleeping in and humping trash). -Fight Harm: This abandoned project involved David Blaine (the magician) following Korine around with a video camera and filming him instigating fights. The rules were that he couldn’t throw the first punch and no one could stop the fight unless he was on the verge of death. The goal was to fight every sexual and racial demographic, getting enough footage for a 90-minute movie consisting of pure violence. He thinks of the footage as a grand comedy.
4.
march 11 - april 8
LINDSEY PUCCIO
Film
Superhero Summer Iron Man, Superman, and Wolverine are coming back. Here’s hoping they don’t totally suck. By Logan Wroge
franchise riding on its shoulders. Obviously, I would like to see Iron Man 3 be as exciting and witty as the first. The plot appears to be similar to The Dark Knight Rises. An international terrorist played by Ben Kingsley pushes Iron Man to his limits and attacks his personal life. The story seems overdone which worries me, but if Tony Stark is the cynical badass he was in the first film, Iron Man 3 has a shot at rounding out the trilogy on a positive note.
The Blockbuster Everyone has that friend who wears shorts as soon as the thermometer hits the 30s. Hollywood is ready for warm weather too since summer means big bucks at the box office. Recently, studios have shifted to releasing massive superhero movies during May to August. The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises set the bar last year, but how will the films fare this summer?
The Wait and See Iron Man 3 is the first superhero movie to hit theaters starting May 3. With the second installment of the trilogy being a disappointment, this film has the reputation of the entire
This summer’s blockbuster is going to be Man of Steel. It’s the newest take on the world’s most known superhero—Superman. The movie is directed by Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Watchmen, and Christopher Nolan, writer and director of the Batman trilogy, is producing the film, a combination that will have fans losing sleep as the June 14 release date nears. The movie explores Clark Kent’s childhood more than previous movies. The trailer also portrays Superman as grittier and more real, similar to the visual style that Nolan used in the Batman movies. The creative duo will make Man of Steel the movie to see this summer, possibly starting DC Comics’ new major trilogy.
Reboots in Rotation
The Wildcard The interesting film to look for this summer is The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman returns to the screen on July 26 as Wolverine from the X-Men in another solo project. The main plot revolves around him traveling to present day Japan to fight foes. It’s interesting to imagine Wolverine in an environment other than with the X-Men. This lack of unfamiliar characters might be off-putting to the regular audience, although the concept of Wolverine sword fighting with his claws is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the black sheep of the series, lessening my view of Hugh Jackman’s character. Two years later, X-Men: First Class surprisingly sparked my interesting in the super mutants though. With the varying quality of these films, The Wolverine is the Charlie Kelly of the X-Men—the wildcard.
JENNIFER YELK
price and depending on the time constraint of the contract; Sony must keep re-issuing the same movie, toy collection, etc. This is all a scheme to pay off Disney and make a little money before the contract is voided and the rights to Spiderman are given back to the Mouse House. Sound confusing? Welcome to the world of copyrights.
Why must Hollywood reimagine what we already love? by Sam Schaust
Another popular medium has been Hollywood’s spree of rebooting people’s lives. Biographical movies, or biopics, have been famously done before (Ray, The King’s Speech), but it’s happening more often now than ever. Within weeks of Apple founder Steve Jobs’ death, Sony Pictures revealed a project newly put into development to be penned by Aaron Sorkin (writer of The Social Network). Only days later, an independent studio named Five Star Feature Films expressed similar plans to make their version that would star Ashton Kutcher as Jobs. Both are scheduled to premiere within a year of each other.
Imagine yourself: mouth-salivating, the thought of gooey mozzarella cheese pulling thin like a stretched rubber band until it snaps releasing the triangle-cut piece of doughy crusted pizza to your pallet. A massive bite is taken and you savor every morsel of possibly the best tasting ‘za you’ve had in years. Now the next slice comes. It’s cold, with tomato paste like ketchup and looks to have been reheated from something forgotten last week. This is essentially what Hollywood has been doing with so many beloved TV shows and films from the past. For most, when thinking of reboots, the thought is superhero movies. It started with Batman, then became Batman Returns, Batman Forever, then George Clooney in Batman & Robin, followed by Batman Begins and so on. It leads one to wonder—why do entertainment companies keep re-hashing the same story with different actors? It’s simple, but also incredibly complicated in legal terms. Take Spiderman, for example. He’s a profitable icon for Sony at the moment, but is owned by Marvel who was bought out by Disney. Disney relinquished the rights to the famous web-slinger for a
JUSTIN SENGLY
Coming soon: Ray meets X-men in “Rayclops”
So what is our society to do? Boycott every future reboot? The temptation to watch a re-hashing of a key piece of nostalgia can be unyielding, however this is Hollywood’s plan of attack. They love to follow trends. Even if everyone and their mom is falling back in love with the 80’s, to Hollywood this translates to: maybe we should reboot television shows, too, like 21 Jump Street! Most of these are half-witted ideas to grab a quick buck, only now it is up to you to decipher this. Just simply ask yourself: do we really need another Godzilla movie? Because, yes, that is happening.
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5.
Visual Art
Uncovering the Truth at the MIA’s ‘More Real?’ Exhibition: My gut says it’s the truth, and my gut would not lie By Sean McSteen
If you have passed the Minnesota Institute of Arts (MIA) recently, you have noticed the large green shipping crate sitting at the bottom of the main steps. Curious about the significance of the green container, I asked museum employees for more information. All I was told was that it was part of the upcoming exhibition and that was all there was to know. With such an air of mystery surrounding the green container, I am still curious to find out what lies inside. The crate, with MO/RE/AL? painted across the side, does a fine job of drawing attention to itself and instills a sense of curiosity toward the upcoming exhibition, “More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness.”
Body Worlds & the Cycle of Life You’ll never look at your body the same way again! By Kara Hakanson Do you often find yourself conflicted on what to do on a Friday night? You’re so tired from the week that going hardcore at a party doesn’t tickle your fancy, but you feel like you have to do something because it’s Friday night? Alas, do not fear! I have the perfect option for you, and it involves dead people! But seriously. Head over to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul to check out the Body Worlds exhibit that’s going on now until May 5 for a major eye opening experience.* When you first walk in you enter into darkness and almost complete silence. But then everyone starts to whisper. It seems talking softly is a way to show respect to the bodies you intently stare at, like no one wants to disturb them by speaking too loudly.
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march 11 - april 8
Since the 21st century, our culture has changed and grown, for the good as well as the bad. The accepted distinction between the truth and a lie seems to be judged based on majority rule and popular opinion, with facts and fiction being mistaken for one another, jumbled amongst the tangled cords that make up a worldwide game of telephone. It is this blurred line between truth and lie that will be the focal point of the MIA’s newest art exhibition. The snow-covered crate acts as a preview for the upcoming exhibition organized by the MIA’s contemporary art curator, Elizabeth Armstrong, and is designed to examine and question the idea of truth. Truthiness, a key theme of the exhibition, is a term created by satirist Stephen Colbert, and is defined by the American Dialect Society as, “The quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.” Using “truthiness” as an origin of theme, the mysterious exhibition that is scheduled to run March 21 through June 9 is composed of a wide variety of works designed to highlight the work of known artists and emerging artists alike. With the work of more than 25 different artists, Armstrong said, “’More Real?’ brings together the work of artists from across the globe who are responding to ‘truthiness’ in politics and culture, to understand better our perceptions of truth, reality and the genuine.”
As the month rolls on, the increasing anticipation for the coming art exhibition will only grow until its opening on Thursday, March 21. Not to mention eventually the fulfillment of everyone’s curiosity about what is held within the green, lone-standing shipping crate.
JUSTIN SENGLY
The exhibit starts with the beginning of life – little embryos depict the different stages of growth. Seeing those tiny little humans confirmed my suspicion that we are aliens in our early stages of life. They don’t look real but they most certainly are.
This show is not for the weak stomached.
Focusing on different parts of the body like the legs, arms, and internal organs, the exhibit continues on for quite a while. The stars of the show are the whole bodies. There’s a ballerina, a skateboarder, and an old, hunched over man to name a few. While trying to absorb and really appreciate what I was seeing, I had to keep telling myself: This is real. You are looking at a real body, real muscles, and real nerves. It was (and still is) a hard concept to wrap my head around. To top off the exhibit, there is a video at the end that shows you how the bodies are preserved, and/or sliced, and put into position. Head over to the Science Museum on a Friday night after 5 p.m. for an awesome student discount of $12, less than half the normal $27 ticket price, and see this unreal exhibit. *CAUTION: This show is not for the weak stomached. Less than half way through the exhibit I saw a guy sitting down with his head in his hands. He was escorted out in a wheelchair and I haven’t seen him since. I have a feeling the exposed muscles and bones got to him.
DAN FORKE
Visual Art
Anyone Can Speak Out
The social hour at the event’s start gave guests a chance to get to know the people speaking and meet new faces from around the Twin Cities. There were some very suave people there, and nearly everyone seemed open to talk. A collection of live strings and keyboard played by student composers meshed with the soft chatter that vibrated the
Our night at Words at WAM by Kelcie McKenney Are you aware of the art museum we have on campus? Have you been to it yet? If you answered no to either of those questions, something really needs to change. The Weisman Art Museum not only hosts an impressive art collection, but it often sponsors events that are unique, inspiring, and well worth your time. Let’s not forget that this museum is absolutely free. On February 22, the Weisman put on its second Words at WAM—an open mic night for poetry, short stories, spoken word, and other readings meant for anyone to participate in. With a social hour, featured speakers, and an open environment inviting anyone to recite their poetry, Words at WAM acted as a gateway to welcome all present to get involved in local arts. The event is a collaboration between the WAM Collective, a group at the U that “loves art,” and Hazel & Wren, a group of individuals who have created an online community for writers.
The Bell Museum’s Got All The Dirt “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” unearths some weird facts by Sarah Mevissen The University of Minnesota has dirt from all over the country. Some of it’s not pretty and some of it’s not what you’d expect. In fact, it’s all quite soiled considering what’s being referred to is actual dirt rather than gossip, featured in the Bell Museum’s most recent exhibit, “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil.” I realize soil is a subject that tends to not spark much excitement, but the exhibit makes it look like that’s all you ever need be excited for. Never have I cared as much about soil as that day I stumbled into the Bell Museum. I wanted to stay there for hours, forever maybe, reading about, learning about, and loving dirt.
DAN FORKE
You might ask, “How could someone fall in love with dirt?” Easy—there are a number of reasons that explain how and why I fell in love with dirt that day. First, there was the initial meeting, when I became hooked. I heard a blood-curdling shriek come from a television screen on my left—unexpected, yet intriguing. There was a spoof detective show playing. It cleverly incorporated facts about soil as critical evidence in the storyline as well as maintained the high suspense those types of crime shows are notorious for. I knew right then and there this was the beginning of something that would open my eyes to a new way of looking at the ground. Next, I was enveloped in great guilt, brought about by William Bryant Logan’s words, largely printed on one of the exhibit’s installations: “How can I stand on the ground every day and not feel its power? How can I live my life stepping on this stuff and not wonder at it?” It was a watershed moment for me—all my life, I have lived unappreciative of the ground I walk upon, taking its reliably constant support for granted. Never again would I be so ignorant of its wonder and power.
tall gallery walls. The music was edgy, unique, and squeaky (in a good way), balancing well with the gallery setting. The array of fancy snacks that us college students probably couldn’t afford on a daily basis added to the evening. As great as the food was, I promise it wasn’t the best part. The speakers were diverse, ranging from high school students to middle-aged adults, and all had creative stories to tell. One man spoke of his haunted life, filled with whispered voices, shadows, and ghosts. Another recited a beautiful poem about his younger brother on the brink of innocence. Comedic, serious, or hauntingly beautiful, the words spoken were diverse and full of depth. Each speaker was given a four minute time limit, and the threat of having trashy-romance novels thrown at them was what kept everyone in check. One guy was brave enough to attempt going over the time limit, but that did not go over so well, as a few books were tossed in his direction. At the end of the night, two featured speakers were brought to the podium—Matthew Ullery, a student at the U of M, and Tish Jones, a well known spoken word artist around the Midwest (and one of The Wake’s “Twin Cities’ Greatest” picks!). If you’re currently asking yourself why you didn’t go to Words at WAM, fear not. We still have an awesome museum, that I’m sure you’ve walked past a million times, that hosts events all the time and is free! What more could you want?! Keep your eyes peeled for more events, because I pinky promise they’re absolutely wonderful.
Then, if I wasn’t sold already, my heart throbbed with ardor at the sight that followed—walls lined with a sample of dirt from every state in the country. The range of hues, colors, consistencies was a real sight to behold. Always stepping above ground, we never get to see what lies beneath. Being exposed to such secrets of the underworld, true fascination arose within me. All this and I was only ten minutes in. The rest of the exhibit housed a model of a home and the layers of soil beneath it, another TV show (this time with a cooking theme) where two chefs attempt to concoct the best soil, a giant, rotating block where you are challenged to line up soils with their correct environments, and much more. I encourage you to find out for yourself, “What’s soil got to do with it?” and take a trip across campus to the Bell Museum of Natural History’s “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil.” Even if you don’t love it, at least you’ll be in on the dirt.
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7.
Music
VANITY AFFAIR The Evolution of Hopsin By Tommy Finney
I can’t listen to rap anymore. I mean, honestly, how many times can someone write about sex, money, and weed? Unfortunately, as we have seen from the Billboard Top 100, the witty stripper related rhymes are endless. Thankfully there is now Hopsin.
Are You Popular? The Online Popularity Contest of the Twin Cities Music Scene By Justin Miller In a day and age where worth is seemingly based on Facebook “Likes,” Twitter followers, or any other web metric you can dream up, it’s become clear that you’re only as good as your web presence. So it only makes sense for musicians to take any chance they have to promote themselves on the internet and get an edge in an industry where the odds are perpetually stacked against you. Bands have become more adept at maximizing their support online through the standard social media platforms as well as musicfocused sites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud, but
it begs the question: Does a band’s online presence correlate to their musical worthiness? Local publications like Vita.mn and City Pages seem to think so. Both run their annual online contests to determine the “best” bands in the Twin Cities and they both amount to what can be described as a crowning of the musical Prom King and Queen, only the tuxes are replaced with secondhand flannels and thickframed glasses and nobody gets laid at the end.
His raps explore his deranged past and anger at the world. Up until recently, his luck had really been out. After spitting raw lyrics for years, he was finally signed, but by a phony record label to which he practically sold his soul. The label used and abused him, putting him on the shelf and leaving him to die. Unable to leave his contract and sign with another label, his public image remained dormant and because of this he stayed relatively unknown. Recently, however, his music has exploded. He left the fake label and is popping off like no rapper has since Nicki Minaj. “Ill Mind of Hopsin 5,” which has over 25 million views on YouTube, showcases his pure and raw talent for writing lyrics. This was the first song I heard from the artist and it was all I needed to become a fan for life. Going against popular hip-hop culture, denouncing weed and alcohol, Hopsin paved his own lane. I love that he doesn’t want to represent what other rappers of our time do—money, strippers and weed. He believes hard work and commitment are the only things that make life worth living. Frankly, I can only hear so much about “getting crunk and living life” before I want to plunge myself into a cage of hungry hippopotamuses. Mainly because, in reality, living life and getting crunk are completely antonymous. If you want to live life, go for a bike ride. Go to bed before 11 and wake up before 9. Find new hobbies and work on mastering them. Floating through life partying while listening to 2 Chainz is not under definition “life”—but to each their own. I encourage everyone to listen to Hopsin sometime in the near future. If you like rap, I guarantee you will be impressed with this kid. There’s so much fresh, new talent in the music industry— why stay obsessed with over-produced artists who really don’t represent any of your values?
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march 11 - april 8
MARTHA DANKS
The ability to get clicks, hits, and ‘Likes’ is creating an arms race in the Twin Cities music scene and beyond. Vita.mn recently crowned their top three local bands with Are You Local?, which allows bands to submit a snippet of a song in an effort to get as many votes as possible, and City Pages’ Picked to Click contest is basically the same premise. Keeping with the prom metaphor, it’s obvious that the good looks (online presence) outweigh the personality (music), especially since in the end the winners aren’t even really determined by the number of votes they get. While the finalists of Are You Local?—Audio Perm, Bad Bad Hats, and Carroll— and the Picked to Click winner The Chalice are certainly worthy of some praise, who’s getting left in the dust?
The ability to get clicks, hits, and “Likes” are creating an arms race in the Twin Cities music scene and beyond. With many indie bands fending for themselves when it comes to promotion and marketing, harnessing the power of the internet is a sink or swim scenario. To put this popularity contest in a larger context, let’s look at Justin Bieber. The kid has over 35 million followers! And if you say that this is relative to his musical capabilities, you may as well put down this magazine and go play Frogger on 35W. So let’s all just take a step back, take social media’s influence with a couple grains of salt, and just listen to the music, man. Cause in the end, that’s all that is real.
Music
YEAR OF THE REBOOT Yes, these bands are coming back
My Bloody Valentine: First album since 1991, m b v dropped last month and could not have come at a better time. It would seem that even if you had no idea who they are, one could claim “best new band.” The Replacements: Minneapolis natives are back together to release an EP to help out former guitarist Slim Dunlap who suffered a stroke last year. Songs for Slim is available now. Nothing on a reunion tour, but rumors are circulating.
BY Jerod Greenisen
Backstreet Boys: Yea, they were on Good Morning America. And they have an album slated for April. Nine Inch Nails: From Rez himself, “The band is reinventing itself from scratch and will be comprised of Eric Avery, Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis, Ilan Rubin, and me. The first shows will begin this summer, followed by a full-on arena tour of the US this fall, and lots of other dates worldwide to follow through 2014.” Depeche Mode: David Letterman March 11th. New album available for streaming and download that night. Be there. Black Flag: Two things. FLAG—consisting of vocalist Keith Morris, bassist Chuck Dukowski, and drummer Bill Stevenon—and The Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton will be playing some festivals. Black Flag—consisting of the original Greg Ginn, drummer Robo, and 1979-80 vocalist Ron Reyes—have an album in the works and are playing Hevy Fest in the UK.
Chelsea Light Moving: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is back. Again. His hiatus with wife and Sonic Youth bandmate Kim Gordon could be the death of that, but now there is Chealsea Light Moving. Johnny Marr: Potentially done playing support in other bands—Modest Mouse, the Pretenders, Talking Heads, and Pet Shop Boys—Johnny Marr has his own gig now. His album The Messenger was released last month. David Bowie: Have you listened to the Current lately? Then you know what we are talking about. Bowie’s The Next Day is out March 12th. New Kids on the Block: Another boy band on a morning talk show. Their album 10 is due in April and they will be joined by 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men on tour. Marky Mark and Nick Lachey? Oh boy. Fall Out Boy: Not sure what they mean but the album titled Save Rock and Roll will be out in April. Perhaps they did not go down swinging the way they had hoped.
Daft Punk: Just the hypest. Recently a cryptic advertisement appeared on SNL featuring the iconic helmets of the duo with a possible sample from the album. The Daft Punk rumor-hurricane wrecked blogs all over the East coast, and we have only to wait for our television overlords to tell us to celebrate one more time when the album comes out this year.
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9.
By Courtney Bade Minneapolis psych-punk band Teenage Moods is all sorts of cute. To them, their band is more than just a band: it’s a way for them to have fun together, draw, get creative, and use their imaginations. They released their most recent full-length Grow on cassette back in August and rereleased it on vinyl this past Saturday at The Hexagon. They also put out a video for the song “Rock Man,” set in an art cave bassist Jillian Schroeder created out of her favorite medium—cardboard—in her basement that will make you smile and giggle like a little girl. After getting a tour of the amazing art cave, I sat down with Teenage Moods (and the band mascot, Jillian’s cat Geo) to talk about picking words out of hats, recording-sleepovers, and hoping the world takes care of them.
JUSTIN SENGLY
The Wake: So you first released Grow back in August—why did you release it on cassette? Gordon Byrd (Guitar and Lead Vocals): Just because we could. I mean, we had already spent more than we are usually used to spending on recordings and we mastered in and all that stuff. We thought it was going to come out on vinyl, and then couldn’t at the time. So we said let’s just release it ourselves, but then this Saturday— Jillian Schroeder (Bass): —is the vinyl release. G: I guess we could’ve just waited longer to release it, but we recorded it last winter so we would’ve basically been waiting a year for it to come out. Taylor Motari (Drums): We kind of did the same thing with the Mood Ring vinyl also where we just kind of made the recording and put it out ourselves as cheaply—or however we want. And then someone else was like, “Oh I’ll put it on vinyl for you,” and we had more of a real release. But we haven’t done a thousand copies of a CD yet or that kind of thing.
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It’s usually just handmade things to get it out because we’re done with it, and then later have a vinyl release. That’s kind of the pattern that’s happened. W: You guys have been pretty DIY with a lot of the different aspects of the band. Would you ever consider reaching out to other people to help you? Or would you like to keep it going yourselves?
G: It gets kind of exhausting. You have to work a job, and then you have to have band practice, and you have to play shows. And you have to piece together all the artwork and be a promo person. J: But it’s fun!! Come on! G: Yeah it is fun but it’s—
J: I mean, we all like to draw so it’s always fun for us to do the artwork side of things. I could think of asking friends. I’d be into that. But it’s always so fun, I’m like, “Oh I want to do that.”
T: You don’t have to do it. You choose to do it.
G: We have enough of the basic talent to do everything except the recording process on our own.
W: Could you talk a little about the collaborations you’ve been doing?
T: We should get a manager though. Or a booking agent or someone…
T: Well the first recording we did was self-titled, and Mood Ring—we did both with Trent who played guitar in Ganglion and had a folk group called The Watch Tower Society.
J: [laughs] I wake up every morning and I have to remind myself...
J: Someone to reply to emails [laughs]. G: He does a lot of awesome metal recordings.
Teenage Moods Q & A Listen Imaginatively: teenagemoods.bandcamp.com T: And then for Grow and for RPG Picnic Time cassette we had done, we had Elliott Kozel and Kyle Sobczak—Kyle was in A Paper Cup Band, and they’re both in Sleeping in the Aviary—we really like their bands a lot and they’re fun, nice guys—so we had already recorded the cassette of RPG Picnic Time with them which is just an acoustic thing in an attic. It was just like, “Why not?” I played just tambourine and a snare, I think, and we let them do all these different organs and do back-up vocals Beach Boys style and we had a lot of fun. So Grow ended up being rehearsing to do a big five-piece band version of that with all new songs.
Jillian Schroeder (Bass)
We went to Madison and recorded for four days with those guys again. We were familiar with those guys the same way we were with Trent. They had used that studio before and it was a bigger chunk of time in a real studio for us. But those guys were just goofy and they’d been there before, it was in the basement of a guy’s house and there were kids there, dogs and cats, and stuff like that. We were up all night drinking Mountain Dew—it was like a big sleepover. So those guys played synthesizer and second guitar and back up vocals and stuff. We’re fans of the band also so they understood our sensibility and would push it too far to make it funny, saying it the way we would. Those are really the only two people that have recorded us, and we’ve always wanted to record with Neil [Weir of Old Blackberry Way studios, who will be recording the band’s upcoming seven-inch]. G: Those guys spent more time on that record than we did. We pretty much just played the songs, did our parts. I had to go over to redo some vocal parts but then it was pretty much them alone in an attic obsessing over it, losing their minds over it [laughs]. We pretty much just got to play the songs and walk away from it.
Gordon Byrd (Guitar and Lead Vocals)
T: I mean they’ve also recorded their own bands in a similar way so I think they were excited to record our band and also be in the band, but I totally think they put their own fingerprints on it. It sounds like one of their albums. I like their recordings, their Paper Cup albums, their Sleeping in the Aviary albums. So, it sounds like it fits into that clump. But the other Teenage Moods recordings maybe sound like a totally different band or something, or different than we play live now. Now we don’t have synthesizers playing on a bunch of the songs but the songs are still there, the idea that we had when we wrote it is still there. W: I’m always curious to how bands go about songwriting because it is so different for everybody. Could you talk about your process a bit? J: Our process is really weird [giggles]. G: Yeah—I mean we’ve got some time tested and true methods.
J: He’s our big song inspiration. There are a few about him. One of our main ways is put words in a cup and then you draw them out. And then we’re like, “Ok what would this song sound like?” G: Because sometimes we have music that’s a couple parts and it’s like, this is great, but maybe we should figure out what this song’s about before we write the whole music and try to force lyrics over it afterwards. It’s kind of like having tools in a toolbox where it’s like having the music or having a couple parts—these scraps that aren’t a song. Or we have these sheets of all these ridiculous words. It’s like—these are words I like, these are words Jillian likes, these are words Taylor likes, and every once in a while it comes together in a magical way where it’s like, “Yes! Ok this song is totally called ‘Tulip Tattoo.’” And then it’s just finished in fifteen minutes, because it’s like hammer plus nails equals—construction. J: [laughs] It doesn’t always work though. G: It doesn’t always work but— J: A lot of them are stupid. T: I think a lot of the time Jillian and Gordon come up with the basic premise of the song or a couple parts and maybe there’s already a name in their head. Some of the songs are not pulled out of a hat but we definitely use that trick to put together all these scrap leftover things. Most time those guys can have a couple parts and then we’ll all jam together and work out a structure or if it’s not fully structured we have just a couple things to change too. And we all play together a bunch and see if it gets boring here, or that kind of thing, if we could do that less, or we usually cut them pretty intensely down to a minute or two minutes long. We’re doing longer ones now but longer meaning three minutes or something. G: Hitting four minutes is— J: —this song’s SO long. G: Yeah I don’t know if we’ve even done it yet. T: Only if there’s a huge solo in it. G: 3:40 is I think as long as we’ve made it. T: But yeah we just kind of use that formula for the most part or sometimes we come up with stuff on the spot. But for the most part it’s those guys coming up with one sweet riff on the bass or something and then just kind of jam on it. Then another week will go buy and it’s like, “Alright well this song is called ‘Pool Hair’ or something.”
J: We use black magic methods—some sacrificial ceremony.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ONLINE @ WAKEMAG.ORG G: We sacrifice a mouse to Geo.
Taylor Motari (Drums) JUSTIN SENGLY
www.wakemag.org
11.
Art History
Art History Lesson: Life Sucks Die
The Minneapolis graffiti magazine that gave zero fucks By Jane Campbell
In a world where print is constantly described as “dying,” it’s interesting to take a look back at what kinds of magazines used to be in print. Graffiti magazines in the mid-1990s made an eye-popping impact with their graphic collages and insane articles about things your mother wouldn’t even understand. In this genre, Minneapolis has its own claim to fame with Life Sucks Die. The magazine was founded by a group of graffiti artists and writers from today’s Burlesque of North America—known as much for their amazing poster work as their Triple Double and Dre Day parties. Wes Winship, one of the magazine’s founders and now Print Director for Burlesque of North America, said the magazine was mostly aimed at young people in their teens or twenties. “Everything was really sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek,” Winship said when asked to describe the publication. Graffiti artists, skateboarders, underground hip-hop enthusiasts, and even just “people who were sick of their jobs” flocked to the sensory-overload mag for an escape from daily life. Winship summed up their readers in one word: “Troublemakers.” Life Sucks Die, the magazine’s punchy name, came from a deliberate misinterpretation of notorious punk rocker G.G. Allin’s tattoos. Allin’s balls-to-the-wall show antics included performing naked and defecating on stage. Winship and the others loved that mentality so much they took two of Allin’s famous tattoos—“Live Fast Die” and “Life Sucks Scum Fuck”—and combined them to create the moniker Life Sucks Die. Winship mentioned that the LSD acronym was just an added bonus. LSD’s beginnings came about during a time when lots of similar magazines and zines were trying to dominate the underground scene. Winship and his Minneapolis-based graffiti artist friends decided to jump on the cultural bandwagon and make their own creative name. One of the founders worked at Kinko’s and became an essential element for the magazine’s birth. Thanks to the Kinko’s friend, Life Sucks Die was able to print unlimited color copies of their illustrations and writing to form their publication.
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Life Sucks Die may have started out as a strictly graffiti magazine, but the founders and their contributors had so many other interests that the content expanded and became a platform for some ridiculous articles—if you’ve ever picked one up, you know that’s an understatement. Many of the writers worked under pen names to stay under the radar.
Winship remembers a specific article about “How to Tower Dump” which featured a photoshopped picture of someone hanging off a water tower while defecating. Music was also a huge influence during the mid-1990s when punk rock and hip-hop were coming out in a big way. Andrew Broder, one of the main writers, was heavily involved in the hip-hop and DJ scene and has since collaborated with other Minneapolis musicians like Dosh. The articles printed in Life Sucks Die ranged from music interviews to NSFW how-tos. Winship remembers a specific article about “How to Tower Dump” which featured a photoshopped picture of someone hanging off a water tower while defecating. Similar articles included “Things To Do When You’re High” and “Things You May Have Slept On.” And another: “It was like an emulation of an in-flight instructional ‘How to buckle your seatbelt’ except how to do these really raunchy things,” Winship said. You get the idea. The visual element of Life Sucks Die contained some of the best graffiti layouts in the country and wild collages. “You were supposed to look at everything in there,” Winship said of LSD’s visual layout. “We were going for a reaction.” He bluntly described the graphic design element of the magazine as “not good” but also reinforced that as a main point of the visual aesthetic. The magazine functioned on little income so Winship and the other magazine producers sought to fill every inch of space with written or visual content.
Life Sucks Die eventually died out after printing eight issues with a distribution of around 10,000. Winship said the looming pressure to find a real job made him and his friends put the magazine on the back burner. Although, he says half of a ninth issue still sits on his hard drive. When asked to dole out advice for young people looking to get started in the print magazine world, Winship wants you to “do it for fun, do it because you want to do it, and don’t try and do it to make money.” He also commented on how regularity in publishing your magazine is important to carve out a niche audience. He also said to seriously consider the impact of the web on journalism. “If our magazine came out today, it would probably be one of those pages on the web that’s all full of animated GIFs.” Winship hopes the magazine “encouraged other people to go out and make stuff” and showed the rest of the world that “Minneapolis has shit going on.” Whether it was printing pages upon pages of graffiti or writing articles about new bodily function fashions, Life Sucks Die conquered its vision. But we still want more.
Want to pick an issue for yourself? Hit up www.burlesquedesign.com to get your hands on a copy of Life Sucks Die!
The Covers
>>>>>
Art History
KARA HAKANSON
www.wakemag.org
13.
By Zach McCormick
The long, cloudy and utterly dreary MN winters share something in common with England’s pervasive rain—both seem to have a pronounced effect on songwriters of a certain age. There’s a streak of isolation and melancholy in Gloss’ music that recalls the golden age of British guitar pop that produced bands like The Cure and Aztec Camera. Their songs are the perfect compliment to an afternoon spent dreamily nursing a heartache, or gazing out into the tundra from the safety of a bedroom window. We met up with 2 of Gloss’ members at Uptown’s wonderful Caffetto, and dialed in another on speakerphone to discuss their new label prospects, and how they got away with mild sacrilege.
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The Wake: Gloss seems to have a pretty unique story, would you tell us about it? Jordan Bleau (Drums): I moved up here from Iowa a couple of years ago, I ended up dropping out of school and I needed to kinda get away. By chance, I came up to Minneapolis, and I didn’t know anybody at all, I lived out in Bryn Mawr and just started going to shows all the time by myself, and not really talking to anybody. There were a lot of nights where I would go to see bands and the only thing I would say would be to the bartender,
like “lemme get a water.” It was really cool because I was focused on the music a lot of the time then. It was a lot of bands that, if they had come to Iowa, I would have been so excited, and they would have been big shows that everybody would have been at, but up here they seemed under-attended. I ended up seeing these kids at a Frankie Rose show one night, and then at The Drums the night after. I figured “I need to talk to these kids.” I approached them, and we just started to chat about music, and I asked them if they played. I’d been in bands for a while, since I lived back down in Iowa
Gloss Q & A
and typically I play guitar, but I asked them what they needed and they needed a drummer, so I said, “Cool, I’ll do that.” They had a kit and I do recording and production, so they invited me out to the ’burbs since they’re all from Eagan, Jeff and Sean and Jack all went to high school together. Jeff had a couple of songs at the time, “Front Porch” was one of ‘em, and right out of the gate it was a collaborative writing process. Things gelled pretty quickly and we ended up writing those songs during the summer of last year. W: “Front Porch” seems to have really captured people’s attention, what’s the story behind that? Jeff Cornell (Vocals and Guitar): I wrote it when I was like 17, I had just started getting into that 80’s synth pop stuff and playing around with guitar in my basement. I wrote the chords and melody and just never really did anything with it. The lyrics, that’s me bein’ sad about girls, you know, the standard pop tune.
experience and and nice equipment, he taught me everything I know. We spent 4 days, and 14-16 hour days every day, so it was really exhausting. If the way we did it before was “wrong”, this was “right”, like night and day. JC: I’d never done that much work on 6 songs for 4 days, it definitely took a toll on my mental health, but it’s gonna be out and gonna be awesome. JB: We didn’t kill each other, and I think we ended up with some pretty good sounding stuff. W: The 7” is coming out on a label, how’d you work out your deal with Manic Pop! Records? JB: He just emailed us out of the blue. He’s an older guy, in his 40’s, he lives out in Rochester with his family and is just a huge record nerd, he’s got a giant catalog. He’s into old, weird jangle pop and dream pop. JC: All the things that we like [laughs].
JB: He was heartbroken. [laughs] For me at least, at the end during that guitar solo, I still get really excited during that part. That’s when we knew that we’d kinda got something here. JC: The last song we wrote, we wrote in 4 or 5 hours because I just came up with something and said “alright, we’ve gotta write an upbeat song”. JB: The last few have bee pretty slow, and the stuff that’s gonna be on the EP is way different from the “Front Porch” or “Ian’s Dream” type of stuff. I was like “We need another upbeat, quick pop type of song”, I’ve been yelling at these guys in practice. He wrote all the lyrics during the first few days of recording, and it’s gonna be on the EP.
JB: He saw a need for these young bands who don’t have a quality physical release to have that available to them, and that’s where he comes in. We were one of the first local bands he contacted, and he was like “I will press this for you, no commitment”, we retain all the rights, it’s just awesome. He’s got bands form the UK and Seattle and Chicago and all over the place. His catalog has gone from 0 to 15 releases in only a few months. I can’t say enough about that dude. JC: It’s exciting to post something on Bandcamp, but it’s not the same as physically holding it. This is ours, we get to sell this, we get to share this with people.
W: How’d that Church video you guys made come together? Are you guys really spiritual people? JC: [Laughs] Radio K had wanted to do a takeaway show, and they were looking for locations but nothing was really coming up. I was like “oh, well, I know this church in the West Bank area”. I contacted this guy who books the church and he said that it normally takes a month takes a month to book, but he thought it was cool that we were doing it, so he just let us in there. We felt kinda weird being in there and expected to be kicked out at any second. JB: It was this last minute thing, and we did both songs in one take, just shootin’ from the hip, but it was really fun. It was cool to be in a big church like that with rock’n’roll instruments. W: Does Gloss have Spring and Summer plans y’all can tease us with? JB: We’ve got that EP, and we’re gonna slow down playing shows in the next couple of months because the mixing process is going to take about 3 weeks. But we’re super excited to announce and release that. We’re looking to tour at least the Midwest with some other bands around here. We’ve been talking to Phantom Vibration and possibly Strange Relations too. JC: We have friends in Chicago and Iowa, so those will be exciting, and over the summer I’m planning on really focusing on listening to my influences and trying to get what I want to write for the LP in my head. Slowing down the writing process a little bit, I’m trying to take some time to perfect it.
JC: The EP is a little less guitar based, we definitely sat down and wrote a lot more synth parts, and the bass and drums came first, with the guitars second.
JB: The first two we did in Sean’s parent’s basement, and it was really…shitty. JC: Amateur [laughs]. JB: The mic on the snare drum was probably for a karaoke set, and we just did it live with bass and guitars, and overdubbed synth and vocals. The mixing process ended up being super long, but we’re pretty happy with how it turned out. We retracked the guitars on “Front Porch” for the 7”, with my friend Peter who did the EP. We did that at his house in Golden Valley and he’s got 10 years recording
at d mn un sic fo u be sm n os ca gl ic m/ us o M p.c s’ m os c a Gl and b
W: How have you created your recordings? You’ve currently got that 7” on the way.
tar Gui d s: ocals an i s s s Glo ornell- V sey- Bas C s ool Jeff W rum n D o s u Jack Blea Guitar sizers n a he Jord Nepplynt S n ter Sea Car y m Em
www.wakemag.org
15.
Internet
A New Angle: Experimental Videographers A Nice Idea Every Day is changing how we see video By Ethan Lauer If you’ve been laying in your bed all winter mindlessly scrolling through your Tumblr feed and eating Nutella with a spoon (heaven knows I have), then you’ve probably seen this new weird breed of .gifs that involve switching between a few different viewpoints of the same object in order to give it a 3D mindfucky effect. The Germany-based duo Vivien Weyrauch and Fabian Röttger, who call themselves A Nice Idea Every Day, have gained popularity as of late by implementing this type of effect in music videos they direct for all sorts of bands. They go about this visual wizardry by setting up multiple cameras to record the same event at the same time but from different angles, and then do some crazy smooth editing in their video laboratory.
Horizon music video for their song “Shadow Moses.” The best way to describe how the video looks is a concert being viewed from the perspective of a schizophrenic who snorted some coke while coming down from an acid trip. And I mean that in the best/coolest way possible. Even the Oscar award-winning cinematographer for Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda, has commended A Nice Idea Every Day. Shortly after they released one of their first videos for the British musician Blue Roses, Miranda sent them an email out of nowhere telling them that he “understand[s] 3D very well and love[d] [their] original thought,” adding that it was “very refreshing to see.” Now if you’ve seen Life of Pi and recognize how crazy and advanced that cinematography was, this is clearly a huge compliment. This
encouragement was actually a huge motivator for the duo to continue their exploits in the field of extremely experimental and revolutionary directing. Another thing that makes these guys so unique is their diversity in projects. They are most known for their music videos, which have been shown at various film festivals including the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. However, they have also created background visuals for concerts and short experimental films that have been shown in museums. It’s safe to say A Nice Idea Every Day is going places with their avant-garde and innovative directorial point of view, and they have the potential to redefine what “film” looks like.
I think the best way to describe how the video looks is a concert being viewed from the perspective of a schizophrenic who snorted some coke while coming down from an acid trip. Their most popular project thus far, with almost two million views on YouTube and counting, is the new Bring Me The ANICEIDEAEVERYDAY.COM
Primetime is My Time
Netflix is changing TV, and all of us viewers, forever By Logan Wroge
For years, network television stations have competed with each other for the highest ratings, best programs, and most prestige, but traditional TV has a hungry enemy on the horizon. They’re waiting to dominate before they change the format of it all. I’m talking about the one website college students might all die without: Netflix. The physical television
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has historically had a grip on all TV shows, pretty obviously, but with the explosion of online streaming and Netflix, the future of the original tube looks bleak. House of Cards is an exclusive “TV” series that has been released on Netflix. It’s a political thriller with big name actors like Kevin Spacey. On the surface it resembles a TV show, except it has the added benefit of no commercials and the ability to watch it whenever and wherever. After a long argument of what to watch one night, my roommates and I decided on the first episode of House of Cards. The plot was good, dialogue well written, and acting on par with a traditional TV series. Depending on the show’s popularity, Netflix could develop more original material, making it a new TV mogul. Besides providing a new outlet for shows, the website lets people watch entire series in a matter of weeks or even days. I’ve seen my friend watch eight or more episodes of Lost in a row, and after finishing all the seasons, “the hatch” didn’t mean anything to him after a week. I Netflix-binged on
Breaking Bad for a few weeks but now I no longer care for Walt or blue meth. This anytime, anywhere phenomenon that the internet is offering us is changing how our generation views and cares about TV. Netflix may give us immediate enjoyment, but what are the effects it has on us as a whole? Television shows used to help a generation define what they loved. Netflix will leave us with a collection of things we liked, but without the hype of new, live shows, our generation won’t have the same connections others had before us. A lot of us will have watched the same shows, but not at similar times with the shared levels of excitement that used to be traditional for TV. While Netflix lets us enjoy so much and find new awesome shows like Portlandia, it is possible that we are overusing it to the point that our generation will be more disjointed and less patient than the millions before us. Primetime is slowly turning into my time.
Theatre
Theatre Like You’ve Never Seen Before
Michael Sommers gives a whole new meaning to art at the Open Eye Figure Theatre By Grace Birnstengel
Anyone who has met associate theatre professor Michael Sommers knows two things: you will never meet anyone else like him, and you will never think about theatre the same way after meeting him. Michael Sommers can usually be found working, directing, designing, or performing at the Open Eye Figure Theatre, a small operation nestled between Portland Avenue and highway I-35 in South Minneapolis. What is figure theatre though? Figure theatre is a European notion of theatre that is visually driven. The Open Eye incorporates figures, puppets, objects, and moving things. “We don’t really do ‘play’ plays, we really are image driven theatre, we explore all these different forms,” Sommers said. Open Eye opened its doors in 2000 after Sommers spent years as a freelance theatre artist. “I always wanted to make my own stuff instead of working for other people,” he said. Sommers was introduced to puppetry in high school, studied visual arts in college, and then moved to the Twin Cities from a Midwestern farm. He built something described as “suitcase narratives,” a puppet show that can be transported and presented out of a suitcase, and performed them on the streets of downtown Minneapolis. Soon after, Sommers was offered a gallery show at the
Walker Art Center, got his own studio, and progressed into creating a theatre company of his own—Open Eye—with partner Susan Haas. The space consists of two exquisitely transformed storefronts—one is the theater and the other is the work and living space, now being transformed into a place solely for work, performance, and puppetry workshops. Open Eye focuses on infection—in that the work sticks to the person and infects them in some way. In Sommers’ words, “It’s not like you eat it and poop it out. You carry this thing and you carry the world. Live theatre can do that in a really profound way.” Sommers and Open Eye recently finished running “To The Moon,” a production loosely based on the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. We looked at Greek tragedy and how to make comedy within tragedy,” Sommers said. “To The Moon” featured three episodes made up of an all-female cast. It was the first time Open Eye worked with all actors and no puppets, however, the set served as a puppet and animation due to
the ways it interacted with the characters and audience. “Expect to laugh, laugh, and laugh,” Sommers said of the play, “You will be amazed by the performers, by the world, and at the end—you’ll leave thinking about really sad things. You’ll leave understanding tragedy. We all carry some kind of tragedy.” The Open Eye is committed to putting on different kinds of productions suitable for a variety of age groups. They put on main stage performances meant for adults, and all ages work such as the Driveway Tour—a traveling puppet show run by U of M students that is now in its eleventh year. Sommers is also working on making smaller installments that will happen in the transformed living space. “I’m going to use the stairs, the bathroom doors, the entrance, have food cooking, and that kind of thing. It’s not about creating a play, but bringing people together and discovering what that means,” he said. Open Eye’s productions often translate as social gatherings that elicit conversation and feelings rather than mere performances.
“As I get older, I don’t fucking care anymore. I really don’t care about what the reviews say, or making something good or bad— I just make what I think I need to make.”
JOHN BARNETT
As the Open Eye continues to garner local and national recognition, Sommers has received praise as one of the most ingenious and versatile artists around, but he doesn’t necessarily agree. “The word ingenious is embarrassing. I agree with being versatile; I think I have an authentic, unique voice. It all comes down to what I want to do. As I get older, I don’t fucking care anymore. I really don’t care about what the reviews say, or making something good or bad, I just make what I think I need to make,” he said. “We’re not the ultimate in puppetry and I really don’t consider myself a puppeteer. It’s just a way that I’ve figured out how to work. It satisfies my hands, my mind, my soul, and my heart.” Among his many roles in the theatre world, Sommers also teaches here at the U. He doesn’t have a master’s degree, but it sure seems like it. The U decided that his theatre experience equates to one. “I never saw myself in academia whatsoever. Since teaching at the university, I’ve enjoyed being a mentor and thinking, ‘How can I pass along this stuff?’” he said. Going into the arts? Need some inspirational motivation? Sommers advises trusting your work to ask questions which will lead you further, realizing that art is important and does matter, and to avoid comparing yourself to others. “The arts are really important in our culture. If you don’t make, then it’s important to consume. Go search it out and take it in,” he concludes.
www.wakemag.org
17.
SIXREVIEWS cakes da killa
tegan and sara
by brian pricco
BY beth ireland
The first time I walked through campus listening to Cakes Da Killa’s sophomore effort, The Eulogy, I believed I had accidentally happened upon a new, unknown Kanye album. I clutched my pearls, as I was astounded that Kanye was depicting his ventures into gay sex so graphically. Yet, after being brought back to reality, I remembered whom I was listening to, and thus, my hopes of future dinner dates with Kanye were crushed.
The March 6 Tegan and Sara concert sold out, and for good reason. They promised and delivered a genuinely talented and heartfelt performance, something the new radio-friendly album Heartthrob doesn’t necessarily suggest.
the eulogy
at first ave
The thing about Tegan and Sara is that their fan base is weirdly diverse and dedicated. Naturally, there were a ton of high school and college-age fans at the show, but there were also thirty, forty, and even fifty-somethings. If you’ve ever seen them perform or even watched interviews with them, it’s not hard to see why. On top of making great music, the twin sisters are funny and down-to-earth, and that was a huge factor in the show Wednesday night. At one point, Sara had an on-stage revelation: “I should be friends with everyone here.”
After the mixtape’s opener, “Get Right (Get Wet),” a song with an overture by a chipmunk-voiced Donna Summers in her rendition of “Macarthur Park,” all that is Kanye is gone and we are satiated with a taste of Cake’s own flow. Surprisingly, Cakes sounds more like his fellow, contemporary ass-shaking rappers than his first mixtape, Easy Bake Oven, of gun-slinging, 90s hiphop, where he appears like the incarnation of Biggie. Produced by a series of unknown producers, and beats ranging from current to Caribbean dance hall, Cakes doesn’t stray far from the sexual. Only on a few tracks does he condescend his competitors. During a wacky interlude in “Da Good Book,” he sings along with his own auto-tuned voice, “I’ve been thinkin’ bout dick a lot, lot, lot,” obviously alluding to Frank Ocean’s first success, “Thinkin’ Bout You,” and Ocean’s own self-confessed bisexuality. Though, it’s hard to say if Cakes is harassing him, or simply trying to turn him on. With short, campy interludes, Cakes glorifies the drag ball and voguing culture in which his brief career has started and will hopefully continue to shape his work.
the men new moon BY sam schaust The city is Brooklyn, New York. The year is 2008 and a grizzly child has been conceived. The names of the parents are still unknown, yet many consider the father to be the Misfits; the mother, the Pixies. We call this child The Men and he has been aging like a fruitful wine—every year tasting all the better. Since 2010, this generation’s most efficient punk-rock band has produced one album annually, each year improving upon the last. In 2012, Open Your Heart—considered by critics to be The Men’s best (and most accessible) work—lambasted eardrums into an intergalactic rock-and-roll highway. With New Moon we find The Men tastefully experimenting with new sound.
Having been on the scene since the early 2000’s, Tegan and Sara are old pros. Their light show was amazing, their set list was meticulous, and their outfits were perfect. And, of course, the music was incredible. They kicked off the show with songs from Heartthrob, which were more passionate live than on the album. They gradually mixed in old favorites, which flowed surprisingly well with the new, more pop-heavy material. The show proved that even though they’re older, Tegan and Sara are still the alternative twin lesbians we know and love – complete with flawless vocals and onstage banter. Pair that with a long set (ninety minutes plus an encore) and an audience ready to dance and sing along, and you have a perfect night at First Ave.
It all starts light, I mean very light. Imagine if Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti attempted bluegrass and the lackluster country spirit of tracks one and two have been achieved. After that it picks up, then picks up a little more, the tempo continues to rise, and now you’re dancing under flashing lights shoving your friends into walls. Soon enough, as you all heave each other up off the ground, New Moon’s stand out track “Electric” takes cue to the airwaves. Its thunderous pace grabs you like a ripcord and whips you back down to the floor. You’ll likely remain there until “Bird Song” begins, another stand out. The loopy guitar wails take cue from a mild Velvet Underground before they crash in unison and erupt sleek and collected. As New Moon continues to its finish, The Men prove they aren’t just men with instruments, but rather one of today’s most endowed punk groups.
LINDSEY BYRNES
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march 11 - april 8
Supreme
spring/summer 2013 collection BY ethan lauer The underground skate brand-turned-trust fund hipster phenomenon Supreme recently released their much-anticipated Spring/Summer 2013 collection and the best way I can describe my sentiment is conflicted. The part of me that truly appreciates the brand’s history, image, culture, and general design aesthetic is psyched, but my hipster mentality is telling me that Supreme can no longer be cool because it’s so popular. All biases aside though, this collection is a nice mix of classic Supreme staple pieces and bold, progressive designs. The most coveted pieces of the collection so far are a hoodie, t-shirt, and Vans shoes that feature a take on the album artwork from New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies, all of the pieces selling out within minutes. The stupid thing is, the majority of people buying these pieces have no idea who New Order is and are strictly concerned with being on trend or reselling shit on eBay.
a good day to die hard yippEE KI-yay kinda
Now that Supreme has become such a hot brand not only to hipsters, but also in the fashion world, it looks as though Supreme might be straying from the punk-ass youngin’ crowd it once appealed to in order to focus on more high fashion escapades. Last spring they collaborated with Comme des Garçons SHIRT, a well-established French high fashion brand, and plan to do that once again this season, which will most likely involve $300 and up hoodies, and $400 button-up shirts. It’s hard to tell if this type of transition will help Supreme stand the test of time or cause it to flop, but one thing’s for sure: the Supreme skate decks that were once used by rebellious hooligans to shred New York and LA skate parks are now much more likely to be found hanging on the walls of minimalistic apartments.
murs and fashawn
at the fine line music cafe BY sean mcsteen
BY kelcie mckenney As number five in the Die Hard legacy, A Good Day to Die Hard feels like a last minute addition to a classic series. Granted, it wasn’t terrible, a combination of exploding helicopters, machine guns, the CIA, blood, guts, and a nuclear power plant make it a kind of decent action movie. John McClane manages to get himself stuck in a bloody situation against his will yet again, keeping his sarcastic charm and don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, but the creativity from the original three movies is lost in the explosions and car chases. McClane isn’t fighting for his life in a secluded setting with limited resources—he’s running around Russia with his estranged son who just so happens to be a CIA agent. Although the running is pretty impressive considering Bruce Willis is fifty-seven years old and is still a total badass. The father/son relationship does add quality to the movie, since the desire to protect his son is the reason for McClane walking into the mess in the first place. It is the first of the five to address McClane’s relationship with his son. Having the duo did create diversity in the stunts, compared to other Die Hard movies where McClane was the one having to protect himself along with everyone else. Two machine guns is always better than one, right? In regards to the villain, it is kind of difficult keeping track of who the “bad guy” actually is. There are so many double crossings, albeit shocking and unexpected, that leave the viewer trying to figure out what exactly is going on. Maybe those twists are your sort of thing, but they only left me trying to catch up with the plot line. Overall, A Good Day to Die Hard is an okay action movie but a slight disappointment for the legacy it follows.
With fantastic lyrical flow and well-crafted beats, hip-hop artist Murs took the stage at the Fine Line Music Cafe Saturday, March 2, performing with a level of quality that is rare to see these days. Murs has the unique ability to meld aspects of West Coast gangster rap with thoughtful—even deeply introspective— underground styles. Beginning with an assortment of hits including “Yesterday & Today,” and “Love & Appreciate,” Murs started strong. Midway through his set, Murs brought the previous performer, Fashawn, back out to perform songs from their collaboration CD, This Generation, which was released September 2012. The two West Coast rappers traded well-articulated verses while the beats and rhythms backed it up. One of the best qualities of Murs is his ability to meld narrative with creative imagery that ultimately carries a strong message while still putting on an amazing performance. Seeming uninterested in stage effects—even asking the stage manager, “Can we kill the smoke on stage, please?”—Murs presented himself with a carefree demeanor as he played through his large archive of work. Unlike a few of the opening acts, Murs did not have to constantly call for the audience to give him praise. But the best moment of the concert came at the end. The show appeared to have ended and everybody began to bottleneck out the front doors. After most of the crowd left, Murs walked back on stage to do one more, high-energy encore for the handful of people who had not left.
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Sound & Vision
Staff Recommendations We write articles and reviews, but what is The Wake staff actually listening to, reading, watching, and creating? Yes, despite spending countless hours working on this mag for little pay, our staff still finds time to create some seriously legit stuff. Check it.
Listening Courtney Bade [Staff Writer] Heavy Cream’s first album Danny “Naked Lunch” by William Burroughs La Belle Personne. It’s an amazing French film from 2008. But House of Cards, the new Netflix original series with Kevin Spacey is seriously SO GOOD. Get on it. I actually write a lot of poetry. I used to be that person that said, “Poetry is dumb it doesn’t make any sense,” but I’ve realized what a great format it is to capture an aesthetic or an emotion with words. I also dedicated 13 years of my life to ballet. I was planning on going professional and skipping out on college for most of my life, but then decided I wanted to be a writer. I still take ballet classes here and there.
Alyssa Bluhm [Managing Editor] Alkaline Trio - “Torture Doctor” Karen Russell, “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis” Whose Line Is It Anyway? reruns Sketchy personal websites for my friends
Tommy Finney [Staff Writer] Angel Haze “Pet Sematary” Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Youtube videos. Occasional raps.
Dan Forke [Art Director] Little Spoon - I See, Dark Time Sunshine - ANX, Atoms for Peace - Amok Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series, “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali” The Silver Surfer (‘98 TV series), BBC’s Life, Moonrise Kingdom Art - danforke.tumblr.com, Music - wealthyrelative.bandcamp.com
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march 11 - april 8
Reading
Creating
Watching
Sara Glesne [Cities Editor] Just re-discovered my Best of Blondie tape. I’m pretty shamelessly into it at the moment. Amidst the mountain of school-related readings, I’m finishing “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” by Tom Robbins. 30 Rock or X-Files, mood depending. Scully’s pout kind of melts my heart. I’m hoping to get involved with this big art project called Mosaic Mentality which starts up in April. Otherwise, I’ve got some real low-stress projects like making my own sauerkraut & loads of sewing to catch up on. Sometimes it’s okay to only be doing projects that make you feel like a grandma.
Sam Gordon [Web Designer] Just re-discovered the album Daisy (2009) by Brand New, have had it on repeat for a while “I Suck at Girls” by Justin Halpern — [ed. note] OUR BOMB-ASS WEBSITE. CHECK IT OUT. WWW.WAKEMAG.ORG
Alex Lauer [Editor-In-Chief] Nice Purse - Barely Eagle, Third Eye Blind, Ratking Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” Episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The O.C. “The Suburban Memoir,” my memoir, out whenever I finish it, who wants to publish it? Hit me uuuuuppppp.
Tyler Lauer [Staff Writer] Noah Gundersen - Family “Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga” by Hunter S. Thompson SPRING BREAKERS! (and old Korine stuff leading up to the release) A screenplay about narcissistic teenagers who try to buy AK-47s and burn cop cars but just get drunk and have sex and drive their cars off cliffs because their lives suck. Wanna collab?!?! Come to a Wake meeting!
Zach McCormick [Sound & Vision Editor] The Night Marchers - Allez Allez. A side project of the legendary Rocket From the Crypt, the new album is total gutter punk balls-to-the-wall shredditude. I’m currently working my way through Peter Guralnick’s epic chronicle of all things R&B in America called “Sweet Soul Music.” Community on NBC and 70’s NYC gang warfare in that classic cult film The Warriors. I play in a band called Blue Ruin on the side, and we’ve got an upcoming release show on March 17th at the 7th Street Entry with Hollow Boys and Fury Things for our new EP, entitled Part Time. We mix elements R&B and roots with our background in Midwest garage punk and turn our amps up really loud and jump around a lot. blueruin.bandcamp.com
Justin Miller [Voices Editor] An Awesome Wave by Alt-J Mother Jones House of Cards I’m currently working as a reporter in the business section at the Star Tribune. Look for me in the paper or check my articles out online.
Tara Mrachek [Social Media Manager] Podcasts on my way to and from class!! This American Life, The Moth, TED Radio Hour, Love + Radio. “How to Be a Woman” by Caitlin Moran The new Atoms For Peace music video for “Ingenue.” Thom Yorke can move. My future, my senior thesis, school werk...
Sean Quinn [Production Manager] Mos Def, ODEZSA, Friendly Fires “The Great Gatsby” (for class), “The Silmarillion,” and struggling through “The Bhagavad Gita.” Survivorman, 30 Rock, No Reservations cargocollective.com/seanquinn
Sound & Vision Katie Schalow [Graphic Designer] Josh Ritter - The Beast In Its Tracks “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese Nina Grollman’s YouTube channel cargocollective.com/katieschalow
Kelsey Schwartz [Obituaries Editor] The 2nd Law by Muse The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Psych season 7 on USA Channel My own snowboarding line called Slayer. Designing its webpage, logo, ads, graphics, individual board designs, etc.
Sondra Vine [Graphic Designer]
Logan Wroge [Staff Writer]
Ellie Goulding - “Only You,” Passenger - “Let Her Go,” Ed Sheeran - “Give Me Love”
2000s Hip-Hop on Pandora (brings you back to the middle school dance era)
underconsideration.com/brandnew and about 100 other design blogs
Huffington Post articles
New Girl Orientation and Welcome Week materials at Orientation and First-Year Programs. Beer packaging for the drinking game “True American” as seen on the show New Girl. Get Excited. cargocollective.com/sondravineportfolio
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, my favorite show currently and it’s on Netflix which is fucking awesome! I’m working on a short documentary with my roommate about another roommate of ours.
Chee Xiong [Business Manager] Salt-N-Pepa Monocle Magazine Arthur (PBS Kids) I create rice whiskey for the masses! I’m currently working on a start-up called XB Beverages. We hope to have the concoction ready by the end of summer.
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Obituaries
Photos by
Caitlyn Bell
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march 11 - april 8
Bastard
ing, h t e m o s d n u Maybe we fo er way h t i E . ’t n d i d maybe we . I ’m s t i l l s e x y
Meanwhile @ Middlebrook.... www.wakemag.org
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