Let's not kid ourselves; the world is a bad, bad place. A bad, bad place with some rocking music! For your assistance, I present five worrisome problems and five musical antidotes to get you through.
It's almost winter once again, meaning that walks up Bascom Hill will not only be spent in temperatures below freezing, but will also be hindered by snow. This is mere initiation to the looming finals week and its sleepless nights leading to 7:45 a.m. exams. And this would all be worth it if your efforts led to a degree that guaranteed a job, which of course it doesn't, thanks to a down economy.
But you're here now and able to rest under a blanket of six months to six years more of college life and the protection from the ritualistic brutality of the American job market. So enjoy your time in Madison with Longwave, who will be playing a free show in Union South Oct. 18.
Somewhere between Radiohead and U2, the spacey sound of Longwave's has made it one of the most impressive major label debuts this year. While the army of lo-fi garage rock bands burned itself out by making what was once a fresh genre of music into hackneyed tripe, presented a genuinely original sound. Longwave's disorganized yet harmonic songs make it a unique and strikingly powerful band.
Due to the over-prescription of antibiotics, bacteria have begun to evolve into super-resistant and increasingly untreatable forms. Within our lifetime, we may see the beginning of once-treatable diseases becoming impervious to modern medical techniques. But also unkillable is Madison's own American Death, which, after a brief hiatus, has returned to the studio to produce its own hybrid of countrified punk. Its 2001 album, is a highlight of Wisconsin music.
By now, many (if not most) of the long-term relationships carried in by new students have reached the inevitable strain leading up to their demise. Outside the security of a couple, you will find that the worthwhile candidates who would date you are already being conned by someone like you. Do you realize that even if your soul mate does exist, with a population of more than 6 billion and a life-span of 82 years, you would need to meet well over 100,000 people a day just to meet that most perfect of persons? Not to mention the problems raised by a disproportionate number of women to men (some people, it seems, actually can't win).
But your faith in life-long commitment should not be shattered. After his divorce, Frank Black's desire for nostalgia has caused him to send out feelers for a Pixies reunion. This would mark the return of perhaps the greatest band of the '90s. While the Pixies had a tremendous influence on the genre, few bands that appropriated their sound captured the same fun and energy that keep the Pixies a staple of college rock. With thousands of teenaged fans who never got to see the band play, a Pixies reunion would be a momentous occasion in rock.
With the rapidly growing number of nuclear powers in the world, some are bound to be less civil than our Cold War rivals. We face not just a macro-scale national apocalypse, but a micro one as well (terror alert: yellow). As the threats to our lives grow, so must the suspicion of once-trustworthy people and groups.
Thank goodness we can always count on the Eels to produce intelligently-layered, sample-laden pop music. The Eels' quirky, good-natured melodies will be featured onstage at Luther's Blues, 1401 University Ave., Oct. 20.
As paranoia grasps the country, once-sacred civil liberties have been decimated. Since the inception of the Patriot Act, the man can monitor Internet usage, library records and even phone calls without probable cause.
Luckily for average Americans, the utter inability to keep anything secret has worked out in our favor. After the critically and commercially acclaimed , RCA was unable to keep the Stroke's follow-up, , under wraps. Despite extensive efforts to keep the album offline, pirates have plundered the album anyway. is said to be better that , with notably stronger songs. Buy it legally Oct. 28.
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