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(12/11/09 6:00am)
Someone had to make pop music suck less. That someone was Justin
Timberlake. Though he first emerged with 'N Sync in the middle of
American music's darkest hour, the kid grew up, and so did his
music. Debuting his first single, ""Like I Love You,"" at the 2002
MTV Video Music Awards, a grimmer future seemed to be on the
horizon. Donning a hat and gloves, delivering a deathly serious
performance full of dance breaks and falsettos, his solo career
seemed doomed to be more of the same old crap—a dime-store Michael
Jackson for teeny boppers. But Timberlake hit his stride quickly.
He honed his vocal skills. He forged relationships with strong
producers. While the Neptunes produced that disappointing first
single, they also produced ""Rock Your Body,"" one of the best pure
pop songs of the decade. Working with Timbaland led to two of the
best scorned lover songs of recent years in ""Cry Me a River"" and
""What Goes Around ... / ... Comes Around."" He also developed a
great public sense of humor about himself. In an era of humorless
A-Listers like Kanye and Bono, Timberlake instead became the only
must-see ""Saturday Night Live"" host of his generation. It's
easier to get away with saying you're bringing sexy back if you're
willing to follow it up with ""Dick in a Box."" It has allowed him
to become his own persona and make a cultural imprint beyond his
music (well, that and showing us half of Janet Jackson's rack).
(12/06/09 6:00am)
If greatness were measured by sheer volume of output, Eels would
be right up there with Weezer and Frank Black in topping this list.
But Mark Oliver Everett (better known as E) and his revolving door
of collaborators really belong in this pantheon for one
extraordinary accomplishment. Eels emerged in 1996 with the
post-grunge-friendly hit ""Novocaine for the Soul"" and reached
their critical peak with 1998's Electro-Shock Blues. But
it was 2005's double-album Blinking Lights and Other
Revelations that fulfilled the potential of an underrated
songwriter and recording artist. Years in the making, the
often-downbeat album is more than a one-note ""Woe is me."" The
content covers a lot of ground, from the wounded but upbeat love
letter to the world of ""Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)"" to
the morose confessions of ""I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I
Didn't Break Your Heart"" to the whimsical love song ""Sweet Li'l
Thing."" The same is true of the music, with sparse, piano-only
songs rubbing elbows with elaborately atmospheric productions. With
33 tracks of different sounds and material including diverse
collaborators like Tom Waits and the Lovin' Spoonful's John
Sebastian, the album feels cohesive nonetheless and is almost never
slowed down by the filler and repetition that normally plagues
double albums. Eels released six albums this decade, and perhaps
Blinking Lights is the outlying work from an uneven and
merely good band. But few artists have put forth that kind of
greatness in the new millennium.
(11/30/09 6:00am)
He likes to party. That's an easy and totally accurate way to
describe Andrew W.K. But the full truth of the man as an artist and
performer is delightfully layered. After all, it's hard to define a
guy who combines his classically trained piano skills with his love
of heavy metal and Max Martin's productions of Backstreet Boys
music. How many artists would hit themselves in the face with a
brick for their album cover photo? How many artists can go from
Ozzfest to the motivational speaking circuit? How many artists'
debut albums could feature songs called ""It's Time to Party,""
""Party Hard,"" and ""Party Til You Puke""? W.K. peaked with that
anthemic first album, 2001's I Get Wet, as his follow-up,
The Wolf, was redundant and disappointing. His most recent
album, 55 Cadillac, is a collection of car-themed piano
instrumentals. But as a man who really knows his way around music
and studio recording and is hell-bent on making party music, and as
an energetic performer so fiercely affectionate to his fans that he
famously signed autographs from the ambulance after breaking his
foot onstage, he is easily among the most interesting and memorable
artists of the decade. Party hard, Andrew W.K.
(05/05/05 6:00am)
Last semester, I had a favorite person in Madison. Working out
at the SERF, I used to see the same guy many afternoons. He was
pretty hard to miss.
(04/28/05 6:00am)
It took a lot for \Kung Fu Hustle"" to make it to
Madison.
(04/28/05 6:00am)
Iregained consciousness on a rocking ship. I was cold, I was wet
and I didn't remember my name.
(04/28/05 6:00am)
The Mifflin Street Block Party is the best opportunity of the
year to see Madison's brightest people doing incredibly stupid
things. The fact that people break laws in broad daylight, in front
of cops and with no masks on makes it all that much more fun than
Halloween.
(04/25/05 6:00am)
Take an Oscar-winning director. Throw in two Oscar-winning
leading actors, both still in their prime. Give it a team of
Academy-recognized screenwriters, a huge budget and permission to
shoot at the United Nations. Heck, even Hitchcock was never allowed
to do that.
(04/21/05 6:00am)
No one ever expects to catch fire during surgery.
(04/14/05 6:00am)
Anyone who thinks humans don't hibernate should really visit
Madison in April. Every year around this time, Madison thaws from
its winter malaise and the city's waking college population seems
to double while its smiles seem to triple, as young men's fancies
turn from skirt-chasing to mini-skirt-chasing. But along with this
youthful springtime glee emerges a far more shadowy annual
occurrence:
(04/07/05 6:00am)
Men's fashion rarely sees the drastic, sweeping changes that
women's fashion does. You almost never see something suddenly
conquer men's wardrobes the way. For example, flood pants did for
women a few years back. Shifting style for men occurs more subtly
on a year-to-year or season-to-season basis. Now, as we move into
the spring, some new slight variations for college guys are arising
from pre-existing motifs.
(04/07/05 6:00am)
Back in New York, a friend of my brother once asked me what we
do for fun out in Madison.
(03/31/05 6:00am)
It can be pretty disheartening to be a college senior sometimes,
when you look around the room and see how prepared for the real
world everyone else seems to be. Some have great tact at developing
relationships; some have finely tuned foreign language skills;
others have invaluable work experience.
(03/17/05 6:00am)
There are some things you can never escape, like awkwardness in
front of crowds, bumbling self-consciousness and worries about
life's transitions. For me, one of those things is my resemblance
to a certain celebrity.
(03/16/05 6:00am)
It is a real challenge to dislike Ben Lee. He may be known most
as Claire Danes' ex-boyfriend, and as band-mate to Ben Kweller and
Ben Folds in their appropriately named joint venture, The Bens, but
Lee has been at the singer-songwriter game for more than a decade.
(03/14/05 6:00am)
Hard as it is to believe, almost five years have passed since
Bruce Willis' last hit, 2000's \Unbreakable."" Still, with Arnold
going to politics and Sly going straight to video, Willis is really
the last of his generation's action men to hang onto star status.
But with the muddled ""Hostage,"" Willis demonstrates once again
just how hard it is to suit an action flick to his talents and just
how long it's been since anyone got it right.
(03/10/05 6:00am)
It was inevitable, I suppose. Spending five years somewhere
changes a person. Boys become men. Baby faces grow stubble.
Promising young scholars discover the joys of alcohol. But I never
anticipated the latest change in me. In my last semester of
college, it finally happened.
(03/03/05 6:00am)
It's hard to focus on the tasks at hand as you go through your
everyday life. There's always a catchy radio song, an exam or a new
romance to steal away your attention. But I've had my mind
preoccupied by something else the past few days. Something far more
sinister. Robin Williams has hijacked my brain.
(02/24/05 6:00am)
Feeding people can be tricky business. Just ask my left
hand.
(02/24/05 6:00am)
When Noodles & Co., 232 State St., shut down its State
Street location to renovate its space and expand its menu, most
figured it would reopen as more of the same. But now, as Madison's
favorite bowl of noodles unveils its new menu, there are two things
glaringly missing from the additions: bowls and noodles.