14th Feb2012

STANDOUT OF THE ISSUE: Savanna Dickhut

 

The cover to Dickhut’s EP, Seven to 17.

 

By Mary Presley

 

Warrior: How long have you been singing?

S.D: I started when I was 14, but I took chorus when I was in 6th or 7th grade. I started taking music seriously when I got a guitar for Christmas. At first I was terrible, but practice makes perfect.

Warrior: How would you describe your type of music?

S.D: It’s not country. It’s definitely Folk-Pop. I would compare myself to Colbie Caillat in terms of sound.

Warrior: Who are your inspirations in terms of music?

S.D: People who I meet, experiences I have, and things people go through inspire me. My major influences are Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and James Taylor.

Warrior: Who contributed to your album? Did you write all the songs on your own?

S.D: I wrote all my songs. Charlie Kim played lead electric guitar and Adam Vida played the drums for me.

Warrior: Your project is considered an EP…What is an EP?

S.D: An EP stands for extended play. It is shorter than an album, but larger than a demo. It usually is around five to six songs.

Warrior: How long did it take you to put your EP together?

S.D: It took me around a month. I started in October and finished in December. I went to the studio twice a month.

Warrior: Where can people buy your EP?

S.D: You can find my EP on Bandcamp, if you search savannamusic.bandcamp.com. It is free on Bandcamp, but if you want a hard copy, you can find me around school because I will be selling them for three dollars. I also have a Facebook music page, just search Savanna.

Warrior: What is the point of your EP? Are you hoping for fame?

S.D: Originally I wasn’t planning on doing an EP, but one day I was in the studio recording my music for college applications, when I decided I would do an EP. I have been wanting to record an EP for a while, so I just got it out of the way. My dad helped me pay for it with the help of Charlie Kim and Adam Vida.

Warrior: What was the biggest challenge during the process of completing your EP?

S.D: The biggest challenge probably would be making sure everything sounded the same as it sounded in my head. I have a lot of ideas and I’m a perfectionist.

Warrior: Where did you record your EP?

S.D: I recorded it at Experimental Sound Studios in Rogers Park.

Warrior: What are you doing now to promote your EP?

S.D: I’m networking and promoting it online and advertising it at school. I sold a bunch of EPs at my shows already.

Warrior: What is next for you in terms of music?

S.D: I’m planning on going to college for music to study the music business and songwriting. I would like to write in the music industry for a living, but if me being a performer does not work out I still want to be involved in music. It is not about the fame for me. It is about doing something I love. I want to work with musicians who love music just as much as I love it, and I would be happy getting money for something I love.

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14th Feb2012

Ladies, embrace your geeky side

A new breed of female comedians is changing what it means for women to be funny, successful, and even cool

 

By Sophia Swenson

 

Move over, Gossip Girl. Out of the way, 90210. The geeks are coming through. Although it is nice to sit down after a long and stressful day to the beauty and glamour of Blake Lively or AnnaLynne McCord, something always bothers me. How does Serena van der Woodsen keep her makeup so lovely even after a huge sob fest? And why doesn’t Naomi Clark get sweat stains on her nice Calvin Klein dress after frolicking around California in ninety-five degree heat? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Luckily, a new girl has blown into town. The kind of girl who isn’t afraid to talk about her smelly pits or the big swollen “ugly face” that comes right after a good cry. (Every girl’s got one, gentlemen; you’ll see it when we deem you worthy.)

“Who are these women?” one might ask. “And how did they get so fabulous?” Well, the newly- found love for the geeky/awkward/unpopular girl, (let’s just call her “gawkpopular”), all began with Tina Fey and her New York Times Best Seller Bossypants. Here lie Fey’s cringe-worthy memoirs of being a hermaphrodite child, turned awkward teenager, turned desperate college girl, turned weird improv roadie, turned beautiful gorgeous famous woman! It’s almost as easy as 1-2-3, ladies!

Even the stunning Zooey Deschanel couldn’t stay away from the temptations of becoming a painfully awkward lady in her show New Girl. I mean, if anyone can go from kissing Joseph Gordon-Levitt to singing songs with Justin Long (let’s not get into how much of an awesome nerd he is for becoming a symbol of Mac Computers), it’s the undeniably charming gawkpopular chick.

If you haven’t seen the movie Bridesmaids (and I’m assuming that everyone who lives in the United States and prides themselves on a respectably good sense of humor has), then immediately turn to the nearest iPhone owner and watch the entire film before returning to this article. No hurry. This can wait.

Now that you have just returned from witnessing the work of the funniest group of ladies since the Golden Girls, we can resume this little journey through the land of funny women. Oh yeah, they’re out there. And while women have been expected to cook, clean, and sew over hundreds of years, we have used that quiet time to think up some of the crudest and crass fart jokes that would make even Will Ferrel cringe.

These are a different type of female comedians – the type that will stand in front of the world and talk about bodily functions or swear words for hours. This is the kind of woman who doesn’t listen when men say “women can’t be funny,” but instead flips them a whole new type of bird made out of academy awards and other shiny metal statues that are probably sitting on top of Melissa McCarthy’s mantle right now.

So before we get too caught up in who stole whose boyfriend, or how someone managed to gain seven pounds, (could she be pregnant? Quick! Cue the collective gasp!) I’d just like to point out who comes out on top of all the television, computer generated, romantic comedy garbage: the girl who isn’t afraid to make a fool out of herself, or show off her comedic genius through methods that only men have used for the past hundred years.

I’m sorry. What did you say, beautiful twenty-something trying to portray a sixteen-year old? Mrs. Fey couldn’t hear you. Her stack of Emmy’s and Golden Globes got in the way.

So boys, next time you’re sitting in class, daydreaming of Regina George’s – ahem – nail polish collection, maybe take a walk on the wild side and talk to the chick next to you with the big glasses.

Girls, see that skinny kid in the corner reading? He’s going to invent the next Facebook. The hunk next to you who’s sticking his gum underneath the seat? Well, not all the Harry Potter books in the world have enough magic to get him a steady job.

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14th Feb2012

Lane alum band YAWN wakes up fans with crazy visuals

 

By Ben Palmer

 

Mother nature’s tech-savvy sister gave birth to YAWN, a young band of four twenty-somethings (including two Lane grads) trying to make their musical and visual mark.

Although they may be “too indie for you to have heard of them,” YAWN has been gaining a following through the web. The band’s music has the catchiness of pop, the alternative feel of MGMT, and the music-video feel of OK Go.

The song Kind of Guy, about which band members George Perez and Sam Wolf spoke to Lane’s TV Broadcast class, sounds like a slightly off-beat experimental pop song. The music video, on the other hand, is a meditation VHS that melts into a cosmic glow-stick puppet show. On LSD.

The use of bright colors, trippy transitions, and chromatic kaleidoscope space scenes is enough to give anyone horrific drug flashbacks. However, the band insisted to the prying students that drugs are in no way a theme in their work.

“Most of our videos are really trippy,” Perez responded to the questions. “But whenever music videos have stuff flashing, people say it’s drug-related.”

“We’re more catchy than trippy,” Wolf insisted.

Most of the songs, like Toys, make use of digital enhancement in terms of background sounds and instruments. The band successfully avoids the overuse of these disguises and never loses the glory of a good melody and interesting lyrics. Despite what some could see as symbolic or deeply thematic lyrics, Wolf admits that “lyrics are always an afterthought…which is probably a bad thing.”

Fun fact: The lyrics for Kind of Guy have nothing to do with space, drugs, or color-orgies. They are, in fact, about Wolf’s cat.

YAWN’s songs are honestly quite fun to listen to. If you’ve ever wanted to be the first of your friends to know about a band, this is the band to know about.

Gasoline (off their album Open Season) has a classic guitar riff with a sort of beach-y rock/pop rhythm. The vocals are consistently smooth throughout their songs, allowing them to be relaxing background music while hanging out. The melodies and rhythms are, however, good enough to be the center of attention, and I’d have no problem if a song by YAWN came up on shuffle during a party.

Regarding the videos, I’d like to say that Kind of Guy was an isolated incident. The band acknowledges, however, that it enjoys making videos that fit their busy music.

“We have a lot wind sounds, water sounds, and trees,” said Wolf. “It’s very visual, and [the directors] represent that.”

While discussing a music video in the classroom, Mr. Maslanka came to a realization of some semi-graphic symbolism in the Kind of Guy video.

“Ohhh…that was going through the birth canal?”

“Yeah,” replied Perez,” That’s why we had it dripping with all the fluids.”

This raw energy and ability to experiment with sound and image is perhaps the key to YAWN’s success, as it is competing in a new music market which relies on downloads. The band admits to living off of T-shirt and CD sales, as well as money from gigs. They make all of their music easily available online so as to get out there more.

“It’s more about touring and festivals than about being at a good label,” said Wolf of the band’s business strategy. “Some artists get by at labels but it’s really about touring.”

The band has toured Europe, played at South by SouthWest in Austin, and will soon start a west coast tour including Vancouver, Seattle, and LA. YAWN will be opening for the Cooks.

Open Season and YAWN E.P. are available for download on iTunes, as are their singles.

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14th Feb2012

Elephant in the Classroom

A column dedicated to examining those awkward high school situations

 

By Cody Lee

 

OMG! Winter, and snowmen, and presents! Yayyyy, right? Wrong. Now that winter’s eerie glow is creeping up on us, a demon that we are all semi-content with just got 1,000 times worse…riding the CTA.

The bus usually isn’t too bad. We might have to deal with a few weirdos every now and then, but that’s about it. You wait a few minutes for a bus to come, get on, pay, sit down, put on your headphones, then get off. Occasionally some people might smell like feet, or take up two seats, but it’s not that big of a deal. But in the winter, everything multiplies.

Waiting for the bus in a blizzard is probably the worst feeling on Earth. The 10 minute wait seems like an eternity. You can be wrapped in nine coats, seven pants, 20 gloves (each hand), and five hats, and somehow you’re still freezing. On top of that, you can’t text anyone to pass the time unless you’re crazy and want to take off your gloves.

By the time you get on the bus, it’s completely crowded and you can smell the sickening snot from everyone’s red little Rudolph noses, including your own. Everyone that usually takes up two seats, now takes up four due to the layers of clothes that they are bundled in. There is no room to reach in your pocket to grab your iPod since you’re crammed in like a sardine. Instead of listening to glorious music, you have to hear all about dumb, adolescent topics like Justin Beiber’s baby-mama-drama.

If you are one of the lucky ones to get a seat, you end up next to a sneezy, tissue abusing little kid, infected with the common cold. If you are not sick already, it’s bound to catch on by the end of the bus ride.

After about 15 minutes of riding, you are no longer freezing. Quite the opposite actually. You are sweating. It’s amazing grace when you first step on the bus and it’s 90 degrees, but after a while, the heat becomes unbearable. And it doesn’t help that you are buried under 100 articles of clothing.

Did I mention that the bus ride is three times as long as usual because of the snow-time traffic? You would think that there is nothing you can do besides (uncomfortably) hang in there. On the contrary, allow me to offer a cornucopia of ideas to help pass the time:

* People Watch: It’s surprisingly interesting, human beings do fascinating things.

* Talk to the bus driver: Most amusing stories you will ever hear, guaranteed.

* Read: Not my cup of tea, but some people look pretty intrigued in what they are reading.

* Learn something new: Learning new stuff is great 99.9% of the time. Whether it’s learning how to snap, whistle, or speak Polish, the bus is the perfect learning ground.

* Look out the window: When worse comes to worst, and there is nothing at all to do, you can’t go wrong with the beauty of… nature.

If you have to take the bus everyday, that stinks…literally. But at least now you know how to make the best of it. Obviously it’s not the luxurious life but getting on a bus with so many brilliant opportunities is simply priceless.

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