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Telekinesis is hitting the North American trails again starting February 18th 2011, three days after his sophomore release of 12 Desperate Straight Lines, if this is the album art above we can already tell it’s going to be stunning and a little ominous.

The ‘bowl has been covering Telekinesis since the beginning and we’ve been twiddling our thumbs in anticipation for this tour since the last time he hit our Minnesota streets in April of 2009.

Check out an interview our friends over at Tandem Magazine got to do with Michael Benjamin Lerner and definitely pre-order your copy now! Or buy his latest EP, Parallel Seismic Conspiracies to quell those wet fears.

Track listing:
1. You Turn Clear In The Sun
2. Please Ask For Help
3. 50 Ways
4. I Cannot Love You
5. Dirty Thing
6. Car Crash
7. Palm Of Your Hand
8. I Got You
9. Fever Chill
10. Country Lane
11. Patterns
12. Gotta Get It Right Now

Telekinesis on tour:
Dec 03 Seattle, WA Triple Door
Dec 04 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Feb 18 Bellingham, WA  Jinx Arts Space
Feb 20 Portland, OR  Doug Fir Lounge
Feb 23 San Francisco, CA TBA
Feb 24 Los Angeles, CA  The Echo
Feb 25 San Diego, CA  The Casbah
Feb 26 Tempe, AZ  The Sail Inn
Feb 28 Norman, OK The Opolis
Mar 01 Omaha, NE  Slowdown Jr
Mar 02 Minneapolis, MN  7th St. Entry
Mar 04 Chicago, IL  Schubas
Mar 05 Detroit, MI  Magic Stick
Mar 06 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern
Mar 07 Montreal, QC  Casa Del Popolo
Mar 08 Cambridge, MA  TT the Bear’s Place
Mar 09 New York, NY  Mercury Lounge
Mar 10 Brooklyn, NY The Rock Shop
Mar 11 Philadelphia, PA  Johnny Brenda’s
Mar 12 Washington, DC  The Red Palace
Mar 13 Chapel Hill, NC  Local 506
Mar 14 Atlanta, GA  The Earl
Mar 22 Denver, CO  Hi Dive
Mar 23 Salt Lake City, UT  Kilby Court
Mar 24 Boise, ID  Neurolux
Mar 26 Seattle, WA  The Crocodile
Mar 27 Vancouver, BC  Media Club

Written by Rachel Summers
rachel.dustbowl@gmail.com

Directed by OK Go, Nadeem Mazen and Ali Mohammad. Bread-animation by Geoff Mcfetridge.

Now there’s a way to use up 215 loaves of stale bread.

P.S. If you remember Geoff Mcfetridge’s name it’s from the documentary, Beautiful Losers that The ‘bowl covered last winter.

:: Haley Rheinhart

haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

In the market for a new coffee table book? Not likely, but this might just change your mind. Autumn de Wilde will be releasing a new book chronicling her work with indie band Death Cab for Cutie since 2003.

From the Death Cab for Cutie website

“In 2003, photographer Autumn de Wilde began shooting Death Cab for Cutie at a couple of shows at the close of their Transatlanticism tour. In the seven years since then, a collection of 200 photographs, conversations, and personal ephemera contributed by the band have emerged in the form of Autumn’s new book, Death Cab for Cutie.

The book will be available soon through the new online store with an exclusive, limited edition poster. More details to come, so stay tuned for information.”

If this book is anything like her work with Elliott Smith (the cover of his album Figure 8, yep, that’s Autumn), it can be nothing short of phenomenal. So excited.
:: Haley Rheinhart

haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

Minneapolis/Chicago band Project Film released their debut album today, Chicago from Tandem Shop Records. Check it out, it’s certainly been a long work in progress and turned out pretty  in my humble opinion.

Reviewsic Interview/words from Loud Loop Press/ words from Windy City Rock

:: Haley Rheinhart

haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

It is almost impossible for a TV show to be perfect.  Everything – from the acting to the writing to the directing – needs to be perfectly in sync, and needs to both start out and sustain that level of quality.  That being said, Freaks and Geeks is a perfect show.  It is funny, sad, beautiful, and occasionally uncomfortable — often all at the same time.  Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give the show is that it doesn’t feel like TV – it feels like you’re watching real characters going through real problems and having real conversations.

This realism is really the hallmark of Freaks and Geeks.  While other high school shows went for schmaltzy romantic storylines, zany plots, and featured characters who acted more like 25 year olds than high-schoolers, Freaks wasn’t afraid to zero in on the inherent awkwardness of adolescents who are still trying to grow up.

Like many others, I was drawn to the show years after NBC canceled it after just 12 episodes.  I couldn’t help but notice that seemingly half of the Judd Apatow comedy crew (i.e. Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad), including Apatow himself, worked on the show, along with successful actors and writers outside of it.  I thought there was just no way this much talent could have spawned from one show by coincidence (I was right).

The ensemble cast is truly one of the best in the history of television, featuring Linda Cardellini as Lindsay Weir, a former “mathlete” who attempts to migrate to the group of “freaks” led by James Franco, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, and Busy Phillipps.  The geeks side features the tiny John Francis Daley as Lindsay’s brother Sam, along with Samm Levine and Martin Starr as his best friends.  While other shows tend to reduce both groups to broad stereotypes, Freaks brought depth to every single character, showing their family life and what makes them who they are.

The early cancellation of Freaks and Geeks adds an element of “what if” to pretty much any discussion about it.   But, truthfully, getting canceled might have been the best thing for Freaks and Geeks.  For one season, the show explored a fascinating group of characters, and told groundbreaking stories about topics rarely discussed. Thanks to the stellar cast, along with the creative genius of creator Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, the show was able to tell an amazing story, from the very first scene (one of my favorites in any TV show) to the last.  Even if you’re just interested in seeing the early work of some of the cast, Freaks and Geeks is a show that you owe it to yourself to see.

Josh Epstein
jepstein01@hamlineuniversity.edu

Walking into the theatre with a vague notion that David Fincher’s new Film, The Social Network, was about the creation of Facebook, I was skeptical. How could the making of a website ever be interesting? There’s just too much math.

But what I didn’t know was that the story behind the development of the world’s most powerful social network is only partially about a nerd entering code.  Beyond the computer science, it is a complicated tale, full of ethical dilemmas, wavering loyalties, and insights about the often bizarre way institutions function.  Few other movies are able to pull off this type of depth, while still allowing the plot to move forward.  Parts one and two of Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy come as notable exceptions.

The story, written by Aaron Sorkin, follows the life of Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, at different stages in the site’s development.  Instead of adhering to chronology, Sorkin decides to skip around-moving between the year at Harvard (2003) where Zuckerberg made the website and hearings regarding two law suits filed against him, by fellow students, for intellectual property violations.  After some intro scenes, the plot adheres to the following pattern: accusations about Zuckeberg’s supposed transgressions are heard in a tense conference room and then, the events from which these charges stem are played out directly after.  Such a format is highly engaging since it forces the viewer to try and pick sides between Zuckerman and his various accusers. But as the film unfolds, one will find this far from easy.  No character is completely innocent, and this makes for heated discussions on the ride back from the theatre.

Besides this ambiguity, Network also reveals a fascinating contradiction that exists at Harvard and to some degree, all college campuses.  On one hand the level of intellectual energy is astonishing.  This is the school Facebook was invented at between classes and under the influence of alcohol.  Still, the Harvard portrayed in Network is also rife with a number of bizarre customs that students accept without thought.  The students, who are literally changing the world with their ideas, are the same ones who carry chickens around campus to make the cut for Harvard’s exclusive fraternities.

This combination the highest and lowest forms of culture is one of the things that makes any college experience bizarrely unique, and also make’s Network worth seeing multiple times.

Nathan Walker
nwalker02@hamlineuniversity.edu

Word has it Jack Kerouac’s famed On The Road is making its way onto film. Director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera have plotted out the screenplay and the final product is set to be released sometime in 2011. The cast includes Viggo Mortensen (glad to see he’s moving on from Aragorn in LotR), Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst and Kristen Stewart. I’ve gotta say, I’m interested to see how this all unfolds.

IMDB

Possibly at Cannes…

::Haley Rheinhart

haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

With his show at the Orpheum Theatre on October 16 approaching ever closer, the melody lines of Sufjan Stevens have been playing over and over again in my head (and on my laptop). To make things even better, NPR is currently streaming his upcoming LP The Age of Adz which hits stores on October 12, just as he embarks on his Fall 2010 tour.

Upon a quick first listen of the new album, it sounds like Sufjan has gone down a path much more under the influence of synthesizers and electronica (but what hasn’t these days…) But beyond the computerized dissonances lie the melodic complexities in typical Stevens fashion. Sigh, thank goodness. It’s just not a Sufjan Steven tune without a million different things happening at once and somehow still managing to sound music (and good music at that).

Does this new robot-Stevens suit your liking? Will he ever revisit his banjo strumming days of Michigan? Why am I ending my post in question-style like I write for hipsterrunoff? I. don’t. know. Listen to The Age of Adz for free on NPR and see for yourself.

::Haley Rheinhart
haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991)  is something of a rough collage. Constantly shifting styles, the film, at different times, has the feeling of a pseudo-Shakespearian comedy, a familial melodrama, and a classic road tale in the vein of Easy Rider.  And to add even more confusion, all of these elements are played out in gay-prostitute underworld of the Pacific Northwest (oh and a little bit in Idaho and Italy too).  The film follows the life of Mike (River Phoenix)-an allergic, narcoleptic, and emotionally violent hustler who goes about his business in the slums of Seattle.  In these ventures, Mike soon encounters Scott (Keanu Reeves) an old friend and fellow call-boy.  From here, the two travel around on many adventures-the purpose of which eventually crystallizes into the search for Mike’s estranged mother.

This longing, on Mike’s part, to finally see mommy again gives the film a place to go, but is far from its most interesting aspect.  Instead, the viewer will be drawn to the contradictory world members of the Northwest’s prostitute sub-culture occupy.  In many ways the existence of these Hustlers is quite miserable.  They sleep on roofs or in doorways, and to survive, must indulge their client’s bizarre fetishes, which Van Sant does not hesitate to display in painful detail.  But in another way, the characters of the film’s sub-culture have a vibrant quality that cannot be found in the “legitimate” world their clients occupy.  Many wear flamboyant neon jackets with tight jeans and cowboy boots that clearly set them apart from the more conventional sort.  Others speak in a vernacular that strangely and cleverly blends hipster slang with Shakespearian English-often giving what would be normally mundane observations a distinctly poetic quality.  And all of Idaho’s Hustler characters possess the defiant demeanor-associated with all the proudest counter-cultures-that allows them to say “yeah I’m weird, and fuck you” with every step.

But superficial differences aside, the hustler world that Mike, Scott, and the many others in the film occupy is permeated by a class hierarchy that sharply resembles that of the “normal” world.  Throughout the film, Van Sant plays with this irony to an often divesting effect.  His ability to make Idaho so strange and yet so familiar is what makes it an engaging film.

Nathan Walker
nwalker01@hamlineuniversity.edu

The Dustbowl packed up their equipment and headed to the new Infinitea Teahouse in Uptown. No, we weren’t having an herbal refreshment, we were on site to get going on a long overdue Skyway Session with Minneapolis transplants The Farewell Circuit. Local film director, Matt Cici, first wired us to The Farewell Circuit back in April after using one of their songs in the trailer for his film Lambent Fuse.

With the greatest of ease, The Farewell Circuit swiftly filled the space of Infinitea with the ethereal sounds of their latest EP Brother’s Eyes.  Just as mesmerizing are the lyrics, which beautifully compliment every chord and chime. They left us with resonating melodies permeating a dream-state we didn’t want to wake from. The EP is available on their bandcamp site for a “pay-what-you-can” price.

If you want to see them for yourself, catch their next show tomorrow, September 10th, 9PM at Nick and Eddie (1612 Harmon Place Minneapolis, MN). Sorry youngbloods, it’s a 21+ event. Also, check out the photos we snapped in our Flickr ‘bowl section.

The Dustbowl
Haley Rheinhart & Rachel Summers
blog.dustbowl@gmail.com

written and directed by Ondi Timoner

Who is watching? Why are we watching? How will watching affect us? What does it mean to be constantly watched without privacy? How is the digital age helping or hindering our personal interactions with others?

Ondi Timoner  (two-time Sundance Grand Jury award winner) takes us to a truly evocative time in technological history by documenting the polarizing experiences and works of internet visionary, Josh Harris. As the world was in flux over a potential Y2K apocalypse, Josh Harris’ “Quiet: We Live In Public” experiment was in the midst of collapsing. This art exhibit was one of the most invasive looks into the way the human condition functions when exposed to extreme measures of virtual scrutiny through filming. Over 100 artists in a New York warehouse signed away their lives to the control of Josh Harris in this large scale, big brother examination.

We Live in Public (2009) shows how relationships can become dissonant under these types of digital pressures of having an audience view one’s every move. The nature of celebrity relationships comes to mind while watching and why so many can never truly become of anything more than tabloid fodder. As things start to crumble in Harris’ world he finds peace in the bare necessity’s that life has to offer. Timoner’s exploration of ten years of an internet genius is definitely one to witness.

Written by Rachel Summers

rachel.dustbowl@gmail.com