Soil Compilation

News
Opinion: The University of Iowa must do more to protect its marching band and performers

When a student dies under the university’s watch, it should become the concern of the entire student body. That is why, despite not being a member of the Hawkeye Marching Band or a student-athlete, I write today to call for more robust protocols and protections in the future to safeguard the health of some of the most dedicated and hardworking student-athletes on campus: the Hawkeye Marching Band.  It’s worth comparing what happened on September 5th to a similar tragedy that happened recently at Arizona State. This involved a draft pick, Matthew Mayich, who collapsed from heat exhaustion during an intense … Continued

Online Content
September 14, No New Jail Show

As far back as my first punk show as an Iowa City resident, I would continue to hear calls to action to vote against a bill being proposed to spend $125 million on building a new jail within Johnson County. It seemed like a persistent issue with little in the way of progress, as those with any power to stop it were refusing to listen to the pleas of concerned citizens. So when I saw the announcement of a show to protest this very bill, I knew it was something I couldn’t miss out on.  In collaboration with Johnson County … Continued

Music
Riot Fest Gallery

Riot Fest just wrapped a successful, yet muddy weekend in Chicago. From September 18-20, over a hundred thousand people graced the grounds, later mud pit, of Douglass Park. Here are some of my favorite selects from the weekend.

Sports
A Michigan Odyssey

Initially, I wanted to write a story about what it was like to step into the Big House for the very first time. Then our travel plans went south, and then the game itself happened. So instead of just one story, this is a collection of tales from one of the craziest weekends of all time.

What the Lab Means to Us (And Should Mean to You)

As we all make our way through our lives, blindly groping for meaning and purpose amidst a confusing world, harsh, unjust, full of arbitrariness and randomness, struggling and yearning and fighting to win even a sliver of relief or a modicum of dignity, we are, to a man (and woman), left with only one truth, one intrinsic reality, one universal condition: life fucking sucks sometimes.

Moreover, life fucking sucks a lot of the time.  Seldom will things go the way you want to, and even if you get on a roll, good luck following you like a brainless and doe-eyed Weiner dog for years and years- ultimately you will die: death is the great leveler of odds and wrecker of point spreads.

And the worse part is that we’ve got it pretty good.  The only way to feel worse about yourself about feeling bad for yourself is to remember that your petty, privileged, ‘first-world’ problems are so petty, privileged, and ‘first-world’ as to be non-existent in the Grand Scale of Bullshit.  When you think about the amount of unmitigated suffering in the world, lives that begin in misery and end in agony, it puts your aforementioned cosmic malaise into perspective- and makes you feel like an asshole.  There’s just no relief!

But there is!  For here is The Lab: modern, hip, a safe haven for expression, for experimentation, for open and honest artistic endeavor.  For as long as you care to imbibe in its splendor, an hour, three, several, our beautiful Lab is here, blasting its braggadocio and earnestness for any who care to reap its benefits.  And benefits there are a-plenty; if you just dig on the vibes we give.

And so we, the DJs, enthusiasts, and creative entities of the Lab pledge thus:  we will not be bound by stupid fashions or expectations but those which we set for ourselves; we will not settle for anything that yields to destructive negativity; we will always strive to do what has not been done, with the goal of fostering an atmosphere and sound that is groovy and personal.  We are the alternative to The Alternative.

And failing all that, we’ll at least have some fun.  Or just make random noises for an hour.

This guy knows what we’re talking about.

Floreat Lab!