rakemag

There is no shortage of theories regarding the fever dreams of David Lynch. We have our own: He’s a walking clinical study of high-functioning autism, a man who lives—quite literally, by all appearances—in a private world that turns the everyday back on us in grotesquely refracted ways. All of Lynch’s most emblematic works (this movie, … Read more

A writer—a pulp novelist, a man who’s betrayed his own talent and, by his reckoning, every important relationship he’s ever known—lies in a hospital bed, delirious from disease. He can’t grip a pen; he can’t move at all without excruciating pain. To keep from going mad, he sets out to rewrite in his head The … Read more

We’ve made Canada the brunt of a few good jokes over the years, but they know it’s all in good fun. Besides, we Minnesotans are about as close to the Canadians as any American can legally be without renouncing citizenship. The problem isn’t so much that Canada doesn’t have a national identity separate from America’s … Read more

It’s hard to believe, but Emmylou has had a career as full of twists, turns, and total self-reinvention as Madonna. No, wait, she’s had way more—and she’s been a national treasure for twice as long. Only in recent years have more people come to the realization that this woman is all that. Thanks to the … Read more

We can’t be too emphatic about it: This Australian is one of the best and sturdiest singer/songwriters around (and, for all you Entertainment Tonight devotees—Russell Crowe’s favorite pop star!), even if he has never managed more than the most meager cult status here in the states. Kelly’s songs have a sneaky, brooding force that grows … Read more

We’re going out on a limb here and recommending you skip Opening Day (April 12) and go to the second home game Saturday night. The best reason is this: You get to avoid all the dorks who know nothing about baseball and make it hard to get to the concession stands to get a beer … Read more

It’s easier than ever to love movies, yet harder than ever to prove yourself a bona fide movie-lover. When home theaters have displaced pool tables as the most prevalent rec-room fixture, and the guys on KFAN are just as likely to jaw about box office figures as T-wolves stats, it takes a certain amount of … Read more

The folks at Island Records assured us we’d be on the guest list for last month’s Ryan Adams show at the Orpheum. We weren’t. Bent on revenge (we paid for parking and everything!), we threw a dart at the label’s spring release calendar and vowed to publish a ruthless slag of whichever forthcoming album met … Read more

We can’t speak to the current whereabouts of Bubbles the Chimpanzee, but among the rest of Michael Jackson’s former sidekicks, Sheryl Crow (an ex-backup singer for his freaky pop Highness) seems to enjoy the most far-reaching success. The sunny pop-rock of her long—awaited new record may not rewrite the rule book on Top 40 escapism, … Read more

In the rock world, cover bands are too often dismissed as cop-outs who either can’t or won’t be bothered to come up with their own original repertoire. There’s more tolerance for such cribbing in the jazz realm, where so much of the genre’s best music still cries out for spontaneous reworking. Still, it’s a rare … Read more