Bass player Alex Staley, frontman Charlie Rockwell, and drummer Jesse Humphrey

Allston’s Love in Stockholm is most certainly a rock band. But to try to force their sound into one flat genre would be an insult to their talent and versatility. The septet has mastered a fantastic groove, blending the sultry cadence of the smoothest of blues with an energy that could seize the attentions of the rowdiest audiences.

In fact, the group’s namesake, Stockholm, refers not to Sweden’s capital, but instead to the syndrome – and the band absolutely earns its epitaph.

Here, take a listen to this:

[wpaudio url="http://buquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/01-1-Beauty-Fades-MP3-for-Audio-Podcasting.mp3" text="Beauty Fades by Love in Stockholm" dl="0"]

Clark, Staley, Rockwell, and McBrien under house lights.

At one moment they whisper delicately in your ear, drawing you into their clutches. Then, when you least expect it, the trumpet and sax burst into so powerful a groove you can feel it running through you. The blend of saxophone, trumpet, and keys with the traditional rock lineup produces an irresistible combination. And the next thing you know, you find yourself sympathizing with your captor.

They are snappy, yet potent. Evan Sanders’ organ, along with Jesse Humphrey on the drums, lay out a smooth-flowing base for the body of Brendan McBrien, Neil Clark, and Alex Staley’s riffs. Meanwhile saxophone player Dave Carroll and Sanders on the trumpet accent the sound, lifting the ensemble to a towering altitude. All of this creates an artful and powerful bed of music that fills the room with a tremendous presence.

Frontman Charlie Rockwell provides the spark that ignites the stage. His vocal style at once wails passionately, like Robert Plant, but also rolls off the tongue, radiating soul like a masculine (dare I say) Macy Gray. He’s also known to break out a harmonica a few times during the set. The band’s vibrant tunes, along with stellar live performances, capture listeners like few acts can.

Sanders on the trumpet and Carroll on sax.

But what has made the band’s sound stick is not an emphasis on experimentation, but instead a perfection of the mechanics of a sound they understand. “We aren’t reinventing the wheel,” says Sanders about their approach to style. Says Staley, “Its all about execution.” It became clear to me that Stockholm’s practice time is not playtime, and proof of their dedication to said execution can be found in every performance.

Mostly a collaborative effort, the band draws from recognizable classic rock sources, then molds them to make them their own. In fact, a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s

From Left: Sanders, Carroll, Clark, Staley, & Rockwell

“Fortunate Son” is hardly recognizable, slowed by a swaggering bass line and powered by wailing guitar and organ. And although I think Love in Stockholm bears a striking resemblance to The Stones, Rockwell cites The Beatles as a major influence. In fact, this Halloween Stockholm covered the fab four’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, even dressing as the fictional group. I had an opportunity to hear a few of the songs, and I must say, they pull it off as well (or better) than The Beatles themselves. Processed through Stockholm’s musical machine, “With A Little Help From My Friends” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” gain a potency I’ve never heard before.

The Halloween gig was such a success that the septet landed a residency at Somerville’s Precinct Bar. If you are so inclined (and of legal drinking age), you can catch Stockholm every Thursday in December. I highly recommend it.

It seems the septet has as good a head for marketing as they do for music. The guys are beginning what they call their “northeast takeover.” At every show during their residency, the band releases a new single and performs with a guest act, distributing free CDs with the single and few other songs from the set. They also recently shot a music video for their single, “Ordinary Man,” which will be available sometime in December (we’ll keep you posted). But Clark makes it clear, “The best publicity is good music.” It’s a rule that Stockholm takes very seriously, and has, so far, proven to be true.

And Love In Stockholm’s roots are closer to home than you might think. Five out of the seven are BU alumi, and most of them live in Allston. Rich with local flare, they’ve even got a song named for the infamous neighborhood in our own backyard.

They are certainly an act to look out for now and in the future. Check out their other work on iTunes.

“This interview,” Rockwell tells me, “is over.”

PS: Here’s the CCR cover I was talking about earlier:

[wpaudio url="http://buquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/02-2-Fortunate-Son-MP3-for-Audio-Podcasting.mp3" text="Fortunate Son by Love in Stockholm" dl="0"]

Jay Love Jonny: Student Uses Sampling to Make Musical Magic by Ingrid Adamow

Boston University’s student on-campus venue, BU Central, has been an entertainment fixture at BU for five years. The venue has hosted a variety of acts including Beirut, Ted Leo, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, and Adam Pascal from the musical Rent.

Although BU Central has the money and space to host shows that have the capacity to compete with other Boston-area events, the venue has consistently had difficulty bringing the type of large crowds the shows demand.

Photo by Hannah Machlin. Spitzer Space Telescope performs at BU Central in spring 2008.

Only a few shows each year sell out the 400-person venue. Events like the Bo Burnham stand-up comedy show, the Dear Abbeys a cappella show, and the Slow Children at Play comedy show have been successful in luring diverse crowds to the basement of the George Sherman Union.

Assistant Director of Student Activities Jeff Murphy explains of Dear Abbeys and Slow Children, “They always pack the place.  I think they do well because they are both really talented groups, and they have built-in fan bases already on campus.  All they have to do is bring their friends along and it’s a good turnout.”

Other shows, however, such as 2007’s feature of indie-folk artist Johnathan Rice, have brought considerably more modest crowds that range from ten to 20 people. Such turnouts hardly compare to the number of tickets venues like the Paradise Lounge sell for the same kind of acts.

Murphy suggests, “Sometimes we overestimate how popular an act will be. Sometimes events happen when there’s another big event on campus or in the city. Sometimes I just have no idea. But when you plan nearly 70 events a year, they can’t all be winners.”

The BU a cappella group The Bostones perform at BU Central in fall 2009. | Photo by Andrew Bisdale

In the past, the venue has done campus-wide promotion including dorm posters and swag giveaways of free T-shirts, calendars, and stickers at events like Splash. They also have 1,662 “friends” on Facebook to notify for each event. Nonetheless, Murphy states, “It remains our biggest challenge to make sure that people know about the events and know that they are worth checking out.”

The current promotion team is working on numerous new strategies to garner student interest. The venue’s PR manager, Justin Monestime, considers their most effective method of promotion to be “with social networking sites… Facebook especially,” yet he also recognizes the venue’s success in less mainstream approaches:

“With BU Central, the more unconventional means of advertising have been the most successful. Whether it be a flier mosaic in Warren Towers or giving away balloons advertising our events to passersby on Comm. Ave.”

Monestime also acknowledges the difficulty in bringing a big crowd to the venue: “Getting people to attend our shows is a tricky combination of two factors. Advertising and getting the word out is key, but having recognizable talent on the BUC stage is also crucial.”

In further attempt to bring a new face to the venue, BU Central General Manager Sam Inchausti has taken a closer look at booking for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Photo Courtesy of BU Central. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah perform at BU Central in fall 2005.

“Booking has changed considerably at BU Central because we are focusing on promoting the venue as a student space. We’re really just trying to get more students down there and to utilize the space that has been given to them,” She said. “For next semester we are trying to host as many student group events as we can because we just want the community to be more aware of BU Central and all it has to offer.”

With all of the fall’s events finally over, Inchausti is currently working  on next semester’s booking with the rest of the BU Central team. Secure calendar spots include the comedian Myq Kaplan on Januay 29 and Battle of the Bands at the end of March.

For more information on BU Central and a list of events, go to http://www.bu.edu/bucentral/.

The Novel Ideas open for Cymbals Eat Guitars at BU Central on October 17, 2009:

Scenes From The Underground: BU Central’s All Day Music Fest by Heather Vandenengel

Slow Children At Play Provide Free Fun at BU Central by Lauren Michael

The Concert Search: Best Ways to Find Shows by Kristin Toussaint

The biggest flaw that needs fixing right now is the lack of an easy-to-understand explanation of what Google Wave is. It’s difficult to grasp, unless you watch their numerous tutorial videos and read their “Abouts” because the idea seems so wacky. In short, Google Wave is instant messaging, e-mail, and social networking all rolled up into one. It is a real-time communication tool that allows friends to share essentially anything they want with each other in a free-flowing message (a Wave) that is continuously added to by users.

In an e-mail messaging system, an e-mail is started by hitting the “New” button and entering the address. Similarly, Google Wave begins by hitting “New Wave” and choosing someone from your Contacts list. But that’s where the similarities end. One you start typing, there’s no need to hit Send. Google Wave updates in real-time as you type. You can post images, attach files, link to tweets, insert a map, and more. And at the top of the Wave, you can choose to add as many people as you want into the conversation; then they can all start contributing to the wave as well. All of it unfolds before the eyes of whoever is watching. If no one is there to receive your wave, they find it waiting in their inbox when they arrive. If this still doesn’t make sense, watch the outstanding video below.

Right now, since it is in closed beta, the number of things you can do with it are relatively limited (relatively; they still have a hell of a lot you can do). Picture this in two years: live video conferencing between a group of eight, while directly next to it people can hold more private conversations at the same time. Whenever some needs a document, or a link, or a photo it can simply be uploaded to Google Wave and viewed(/downloaded) by all others. People can drop in and out of the conversation if need-be and catch up on the info they missed by scrolling through the wave later. You can’t do this with anything else right now. Without Wave, such an activity would require you to juggle three different applications at once: your e-mail (to upload files), iChat/Skype, and the internet (to view the many links posted; RSS feeds, YouTube vids, and tweets can be embedded directly into the Wave).

Or imagine a group assignment which requires you to throw a presentation together. Four students can meet on Wave and not only have an IM discussion about what to do, but search and post suggestions at the same time. The entire presentation can be constructed within Google Wave, saved for later, and then easily accessed and placed into a power point.

These scenarios are what Google envisions, which is why they are heavily encouraging third parties to develop their own applications for Google Wave. If Wave goes fully public soon (predicted release date is mid-2010), within six months who knows how many applications will be ready.

Due to my short (i.e. two) list of friends on Google Wave, I haven’t been able to use it for any real purpose yet. It’s facing the same issue social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter felt when they first launched: the need to build up a user base. Google is consistently allowing members to invite others, with the hopes that word will spread and people will join out of plain curiosity. Look at Gmail – they took the same approach with a closed beta and it now has over 140 million users. I imagine that in a very short time, reports of using Google Wave for business purposes will rise at a rapid rate. It won’t replace e-mail – e-mail is far too integrated into our life to be shoved aside. But it stands a chance as quickly becoming another social networking platform that we visit daily, along with Facebook and Twitter. Expect to hear more from Google soon as we near closer and closer to the expected release date.

And for all BU students interested in learning about Google Wave, the Quad has started a Google group focused on growing the BU Wave community. The link can be found here. We hope this will be way BU Wave students can network to each other, and hopefully start our own small community. Don’t skimp out on the usefulness of Google Wave because it looks intimidating or because it’s a new thing to learn; if you have the opportunity to jump on board, do it!

I have 25 Google Wave invites. If you want one, post your e-mail address in the comments and tell me why I’m so great.

Photos by Emily Jones

Pickling is a way to preserve food over an extended period of time, using salt or sugar to as a preservative. A “quick pickle” is achieved by  putting fresh vegetables and fruit in a vinegar to break down the cells with a short soak, allowing for quicker consumption. Over break, I was lucky enough to witness Mr. Wong, a pickle master, and now relay the process to you.

In this case, Mr. Wong was using a chayote squash: a cheap, crisp and an endless supply seems to be available from Mexico. The Chinese community calls this treat a closing-palm melon.

Center of the Chayote with pit

First you peel the outside, and since it is oblong I suggest a potato peeler instead of paring knife so  you will not waste much flesh. Some people experience discoloration of their hands from the sap in the chayote squash skin, but if you wash your hands immediately after or peel in a bowl of water, you should be safe.

Paring knife or chef's knife whichever works for you.

Peel along the bottom where the skin crinkles and slice the chayote in half.  Inside the chayote is a small pit that can be removed with a spoon. Turn the chayote flat side down and slice into pieces thinner than 1/4 inch, so they look similar to apples.  Salt the sliced chayote and leave to sit for five minutes “to remove vegetable taste” says Wong. Rinse off the salt and drain; let sit until sauce is complete.

Chili pepper with salt and black bean.

For the sauce: start out with a small clove of garlic and about an 1/8 teaspoon of chili pepper from the jar (Super 88 in Boston has a Korean chili pepper with a little more of a kick.  When looking for chilies, Wong suggests avoiding long lists of ingredients with preservatives – simple is often best.) Mince the garlic clove and peppers together to make a paste.

Ready to eat

Elina Lindberg, 3, eats quick pickled Chayote squash Saturday night. She contined to eat though the spice from the chili made her suck in air to cool off her tongue.

Put chili-garlic paste in a bowl, whisk with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons brown sugar and a drizzle of sesame oil, and some freshly-ground black pepper. Taste your sauce to make sure it has the preferred sweetness and tang. Pour over the chayote and let sit for two minutes or serve immediately with a little garnish of toasted sesame seeds as hors d’oeuvres with tooth picks.This “quick pickle” is perfect for a light appetizer or a guiltless afternoon snack.

Cooking on the Quad: Vegan Delights by Joel Kahn

Back to Basics with Spaghetti and Meatballs by Estefania Souza

Photo from ucsb.edu

The death of a relationship can come in many forms, whether it be cheating, lying, betrayal, or falling out of love. But these reasons are often the symptom of a catalyst, a catalyst called distance.

In the college scene, long-distance relationships are not uncommon, especially during freshman year and the popular going-abroad junior year. And while being in a relationship – no matter the distance – can be rewarding, comforting and fulfilling, the college years test these intimate bonds like no other years in the American cultural life. Is it really worth giving up the party scene, the chance to meet new people, and reigning in your self-discipline to upkeep a long-distance relationship?

When I arrived at Boston University, I had been in a long-term relationship with my high school boyfriend for over a year. Even though we had a semi-long distance relationship before I came to Boston – we lived an hour apart while in Connecticut, or five hours apart when he went to school in Pennsylvania – we somehow managed to keep our bond strong. But coming from a boring suburban town and tasting a bit of what a thriving metropolis had to offer, we broke up by October.

One of my good friends, whom I met through freshman orientation the previous June, had a similar situation. Even though he came to BU as a man taken off the market by his high school girlfriend, the 3,000-mile difference from Boston to California put a cog in their relationship.

“It was a tough time for me switching to a long-distance relationship for the first semester,” Patrick Wemmer (COM ’11) said. “There were times when I was completely committed but other weeks where I felt I was already single. Over Thanksgiving break, I figured if I was doubting the relationship that much I needed to break it off and explore the college dating scene.”

Another long-distance problem in college lies in going abroad. When students finally get to junior year, the most popular year to go abroad, they have already been settled into their school for two years, with a close group of friends and most likely a significant other. But if you dream of living in another country for three months, you can bet it’ll have a strain on your relationship.

COM junior Kristen Berg, who is going to study abroad in Beirut next semester, said although leaving a guy behind would not have made an impact on her decision to go, being in a long-distance relationship could affect the foreign experience.

“I would maybe hold back a little bit, and not go out with friends or party as much as usual,” she said. “Right now, I’m going for the experience: meeting new people, exploring the culture, and just having fun.”

Even while she’s abroad, Berg says she isn’t planning on pursuing or getting attached to anyone – she just wants to experience a new culture and practice her Arabic.

However, if you do find yourself in a long-distance relationship, here are a few tips that might help make the relationship last.

Investing in a Webcam (or learning how to use it if your laptop came with one preinstalled) can help make time apart easier.

-       Communicate regularly. Although this might seem like a “Well, duhhh” rule, communicating openly and frequently will help fend off loneliness and doubts of fidelity. “You need to put more effort into communicating long-distance than when you spend time together,” Wemmer said. “You have to communicate better than before.”

-       Establish trust. Since you won’t be around to personally see and hear how your significant other is acting, establishing trust is an important key to not getting jealous over her ripped guy friends or his smokin’ hot lab partner.

-       Agree on common goals. Having the same common goals going into the relationship is important – for example, talk about what you think will end it or what will make it stay together. Understand that your relationship is changing dramatically, and make sure you’re on the same level as your partner. Understand what you’re both trying to achieve, know what the other person wants, and then meet the goals. “If you feel like you can’t do that, you might have to cut it off,” Wemmer said.

-       Interact, interact, interact. Although seeing each other as much as possible is desirable, plane and train tickets are expensive, and who has time to travel with college-level course load and extra-curricular responsibilities? If you’re still missing your boyfriend or girlfriend even after talking on the phone for hours each night, investing in a webcam – seeing your loved one face-to-face, even if on a 15-inch laptop screen, could help.

-       Be patient. If your boyfriend or girlfriend is going abroad where the time zones are different, agree on specific times and days that you two can chat on Skype. Although having your loved one in another country might make you feel uneasy, just remember that it’s a temporary situation: once the semester ends, your significant other will be back in your arms.

Reflections on 9/11, Part One: A Long Decade by Noah Eberhart

Daddy Long Legs- An Evening with the Safdie Bros. by Kelly Dickinson

Photo by Nicole Cousins

When Julian Glander (COM ’12) submitted his short story The Woods, we were at first struck by its effective parody of talking animal stories. Then we were downright horrified by what happened to that simple little parody. By the end, we wanted to find the man who wrote it and congratulate him for taking something so innocent and making it so horrible. We did end up finding Glander, and were able to interview him about his art and his story. As it turns out, the Scranton, PA resident (“Its just like [The Office], but there’s a big meth problem.”) is not only a writer, but a designer, musician, and all-around creative. His interview is below, and his short story starts on page two.

The Quad: How did you get into writing?

Julian Glander: Everyone writes stories as a kid, you know? You have to write them for school. And I always thought that the most fun thing about school was writing those stories. When I came to BU, I found a few creative writing classes, and started taking those, and it was a great way to get back into writing.

Julian Glander's "MISSING!!!" T-Shirt

How about graphic design? I actually have a few friends who own your Threadless t-shirt.

That’s my claim to fame right now, the ‘Missing Bike’ one. It was on the top of Digg.com, and it sold out on Threadless a bunch of times. It’s actually based on a true story: I thought I had had my bike stolen, but what happened was it was towed by BU because I locked it to that fence that says, ‘no bikes.’ So I got it back, but by that time the shirt was a mega huge hit.

How did you get the idea for ‘The Woods’?

I was just thinking about talking animals and being different…just the whole idea of that. I’ve always loved animals, and I always write about animals. So I started with that idea and thought, ‘what’s the most interesting thing that can happen next?’

Did you draw on anything for inspiration?

When you were a kid, did you used to read the “Goosebump” novels?

Of course.

Well, the only thing I would read for a while was the “Goosebump” novels, because I liked how they had a creepiness to them but also comedy. So I wanted to capture that on maybe a more sophisticated level in this story.

You say you like writing about animals and nature. Is there any kind of moral to that we should take from this story, that we should respect nature, or something like that?

No, no, none of that. The idea is it’s a story with no moral, and if anything, it’s that if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you’re just going to get your shit wrecked by a bunch of crazy animals.

I just want people to come away from it and say, ‘wow, that was a good read, I want to see what else this kid’s written.’ I’m not trying to change anyone’s life or turn them into a vegetarian or anything. That’s not my job.

Julian’s story “The Woods” follows on page two. You can visit his website at JulianGlander.com.

Creative Submission: Jonah Lundberg Rediscovers His Epic Self by Gabe Stein