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(05/06/11 2:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Many bands are expected to bring something radically new to the table every time they commit sound to tape. Texan post-rockers Explosions in the Sky are not among them.Over the course of six studio albums and one film soundtrack (“Friday Night Lights”), the band has honed its unique brand of instrumentalism to being unmistakably Explosions in the Sky while rarely adding new sounds to the mix – and no one’s complaining.“Take Care, Take Care, Take Care,” the quartet’s latest release on Temporary Residence Records, is another solid, if unspectacular, effort. There aren’t any moments as emotionally stirring as the bare piano line in “So Long, Lonesome” or as earthshakingly climactic as the first crescendo in “First Breath After Coma,” but the six tracks on the LP are all quintessential examples of the Explosions in the Sky sound.-Opener “Last Known Surroundings” and album highlight “Postcard from 1952” showcase the band’s penchant for glimmering beauty, while the short, almost punchy “Trembling Hands” sees the band veering dangerously close to radio-friendly territory.That’s fair: Explosions in the Sky has become the biggest post-rock band on the planet; not as genre-bending as Mogwai, not as cult-worshiped as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but inarguably a crucial band in the scene and one that grows nearer to our hearts with each release.
(04/27/11 6:20pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thanks to his pioneering work as the frontman for Porcupine Tree and his ambient experiments as a solo artist, Steven Wilson is one of the most respected and important figures in progressive music today.It’s likely a direct result of the complexity and occasional weirdness of those projects that he formed Blackfield, a straightforward rock duo in which he trades guitar and vocals with Israeli pop singer Aviv Geffen.On the band’s third LP, “Welcome to My DNA,” Geffen takes on almost the full songwriting load, and it becomes quickly apparent that Wilson is most of the reason that Blackfield’s first two records were so good.“Go to Hell,” with its incessant, profanity-laden refrain, is both childish and daft, with its embarrassing lyrics lying over an equally boneheaded chord progression. “Blood” and “On the Plane” play like Geffen’s least realized attempts to defy his pop background. Unsurprisingly, the album’s highlight, lead single “Waving,” is Wilson’s only writing contribution to the disc.“Blackfield II” in 2007 was an essential album, the sound of a prog rock giant stripping down his excesses in the presence of a pop icon. “Welcome to My DNA” sees the pop icon trying to play up to the prog giant and failing miserably.
(04/20/11 8:27pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Melting down elements of Afro-beat, funk, jazz and soul, recasting them in an instrumental rock mold and dubbing it “Afro-soul” is far from a typical formula for selling out shows across the country, but the Budos Band has never been ordinary. The nine-piece touring incarnation of the Budos Band will bring that cacophony to Bluebird Nightclub on Friday night as a part of its ongoing Midwest Mayhem tour.The Staten Island-based act dropped its third full-length album, the aptly titled “The Budos Band III,” in late 2010 on Daptone Records. The all-instrumental album is a rollicking tribute to Nigerian roots music, early 20th century New York soul, 1960s psychedelia and avant-garde rock.Opening track “Rite of the Ancients” sets the pace for the buckets of infectious groove to come, and lead single “Unbroken, Unshaven” exemplifies everything the band is best at. “Budos Dirge” and the decidedly more dirge-like “Nature’s Wrath” typify the brilliant middle section of the album, while album closer “Reppirt Yad,” a cover of a Lennon-McCartney song, sees the band at its spaced-out zenith.The album also subtly hints at Western themes, using similar instrumentation and song structure as crucial moments from the classic scores of Ennio Morricone. The dusty song titles and rattlesnake-adorned album cover only serve to reinforce this atmosphere.In essence, if the dudes from Don Caballero traded in their Slint records for the early discography of Fela Kuti and watched “Once Upon a Time in the West” while getting high, “The Budos Band III” would likely be the resulting cacophony.The band’s tour sees it teaming up with its Otis Redding-channeling labelmate Charles Bradley and translating the effortless cool of its studio recordings into a stage show that has been commended for its intense energy.The Bloomington date was booked by Spirit of ’68 Promotions, the same company that will bring the likes of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and John Vanderslice to town later this month.The Budos Band’s appearance marks the last time a national act will grace the stage at the Bluebird before the end of the spring semester, so it promises to be a well-attended show. Few bands that come through Bloomington deserve a sellout more.
(04/14/11 12:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Electronic music’s meteoric rise as a viable form of live entertainment is as evident in Bloomington’s local scene as anywhere. This year’s GLOWfest, at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Bell Tower Fields behind Phi Kappa Psi on Jordan Avenue, feeds that trend by bringing acclaimed electronic artist Pretty Lights to town as its headliner.The first edition of the outdoor music festival, headlined by party-hop duo LMFAO, was during last year’s Little 500 weekend. This year’s bill will also bring rapper George Watsky, electronic trio Mansions on the Moon and alternative hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang. Local artists Brice Fox and Daniel Weber — better known as “the ‘This Is Indiana’ guys” — and The Main Squeeze are also scheduled to perform.But the main attraction, and rightly so, is the headliner. A one-man act named for a tagline on an old Pink Floyd poster, Pretty Lights is the creative outlet for electronics-obsessed Denver native Derek Vincent Smith. Having released five EPs and three full-lengths under the Pretty Lights moniker since 2006, Smith ranks among the most prolific young artists in the electronic scene.He made his most recent EP available to download for free earlier this year. The collection of previously unreleased remixes has garnered considerable critical acclaim for the artist. It sees Smith remixing tracks from acts as diverse as the Alan Parsons Project, Kanye West, Steve Miller Band, Jay-Z and, perhaps most bizarrely, the music used when the Chicago Bulls starting lineups are introduced at United Center. Smith puts his own unique electronic twist on songs like “Empire State of Mind” and “Fly Like an Eagle” that have become so ingrained in the collective unconscious that the points where they deviate feel refreshingly new.With a discography filled with cuts ranging from pulsating and upbeat to hypnotic and entrancing, the DJ promises to bring starkly contrasting tunes to his live show, certain to alternately induce frenetic dancing and drowsy head-nodding.Of course, Smith will have plenty of help making his concert compelling. GLOWfest is so named for its advanced light system that its website promises will “light up the night sky.” It’s fitting, then, that an act calling itself Pretty Lights will grace the stage of the festival when that night sky is at its darkest.
(04/13/11 9:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Looking past the questionable use of Times New Roman in place of a band logo on its otherwise tasteful cover, the latest offering from black metal iconoclast Varg Vikernes is everything we’ve come to expect from a Burzum album.“Fallen” is the second album Vikernes has released since his own release from Norwegian federal prison in 2009. He served 16 years of a 21-year sentence for the murder of fellow black metal luminary Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, and though he released a pair of experimental ambient albums from jail, he remained almost entirely cut off from the scene during his incarceration.It’s somewhat surprising, then, that “Fallen” is one of the freshest black metal albums in years.Vikernes infuses the raw, entrancing sound he honed on records like “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Filosofem” with folk elements far less subtle than on past Burzum releases. The result is a more fulfilling experience than “Belus,” his first post-prison album, which at times rivals the greatest work of his ’90s golden days.Thanks to Vikernes’ controversial past, Burzum always inspires debate about the separation of art and artist. An album with cuts as choice as “Jeg Faller” (“I Am Falling”) and “Valen” (“Fallen”) makes the separation all the easier.
(03/30/11 8:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s entirely fitting that the title of the third LP from Canadian progressive metal outfit Protest the Hero refers to the use of language as a weapon.True, frontman Rody Walker’s lyrics on “Scurrilous” sometimes veer into scurrility — he certainly knows his way around curse words — but the record’s brilliant employment of its verbose wordsmith is so much more profound than that.In fact, it’s a feat in and of itself that on a collection of songs with some of the most jagged guitar work and jazzy rhythms on this side of King Crimson, the focus consistently remains on the attention-grabbing vocals and lyrics.And all this talk of Walker’s emergence understates the greatness of the songs themselves. “Scurrilous” is 10 lean cuts of technically precise but never soulless modern metal, the kind of stuff that should make every band on Sumerian Records jealous. It’s the finest metal album thus far in a year rife with great metal albums, and it shouldn’t be ignored — not that ignoring it would be easy.
(03/30/11 7:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The stands at Sembower Field aren’t full.True, it’s only about 40 degrees outside and colder yet with windchill this Sunday afternoon, but this is the home opener for the Hoosier baseball team, so it’s surprising to see only 100 or so fans in the 2,250 capacity bleachers for the team’s matchup with the Evansville Purple Aces.Before the first pitch is even thrown, though, it’s clear that the quantity of attendees isn’t what will shape the atmosphere at the game. Baseball has been losing ground to football and basketball in game attendance and television ratings for years now; game four of last year’s World Series garnered fewer viewers than a regular season NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers that aired the same night, and the highest rated game in the Series had fewer than half the viewers of game seven of the 2010 NBA Finals.These are no longer the days of skipping school and sneaking into Yankee Stadium to catch a glimpse of the Great Bambino. Hell, these aren’t even the days of turning your cap backwards so you can look like Ken Griffey Jr. Today, baseball finds itself firmly below football and basketball in terms of popularity in America.But few would argue that baseball isn’t America’s pastime.Travis Vogan aligns himself firmly in the camp that defends the sport’s national pastime status, even though he accepts that it’s not as popular as it once was. Vogan is a recent Ph.D. recipient in the communication and culture department who has studied the cultural history of sports in America.“Baseball still has — and this is really a central part of the mythology of baseball — this kind of nostalgia attached to it of being so intimately linked to American identity,” Vogan said.Tyler Hack agrees. Hack is a visiting lecturer in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and he played four years of college baseball before becoming an assistant coach and head coach at Ohio State University at Newark and the eventual athletic director and founder of the baseball program for Ohio State University at Mansfield.“The atmosphere is a huge part of it,” Hack said. “I went to Reds games my whole life growing up. A couple times a year, we would pile in the car and go to Reds games, and I associate those experiences with memories of childhood.”IU baseball head coach Tracy Smith echoes these sentiments, and he paints an image of baseball with a similar romanticism to those appearing in classic works like Ernest Thayer’s poem “Casey At the Bat” and Sam Wood’s Academy Award-winning “The Pride of the Yankees.”“There still seems to be a connection to the past,” Smith said. “America still has a place in its heart for baseball because people still identify with the simplicity of the sport. There still seems to be some humility left in the sport whereas basketball and football turned into a show.”But despite all these dewy-eyed proclamations about baseball’s integrity and Americanism, it’s still slipping in popularity, and there must be reasons why.One in particular — steroid use — leaps to mind immediately, and despite Major League Baseball’s best efforts to prosecute the guilty and publicly decry the practice, it still strikes Vogan as one of the key factors driving the sport’s popularity down.“All the stuff that’s been going on lately with PEDs has made people a little bit apprehensive about the sport,” he said. “It sort of flies in the face of all the myths that baseball exemplifies.”But that isn’t enough. It’s a surface-level observation that shouldn’t single-handedly ruin the game for anyone.“It also seems like baseball right now is having a tough time finding stars,” Vogan said.He went on to talk about players like Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, players who were the most popular athletes in any sport at their peaks. Compare that to the 2010 season where Joey Votto and Josh Hamilton took home the two MVP trophies. Even Alex Rodriguez, arguably the biggest celebrity in the game, has had his name stained by the same steroid use that recast Sosa and McGwire as villains after they retired.Those explanations go a long way, but they still leave out a key piece of the puzzle. In a 2010 column for ESPN.com titled “Slicing up the Red Sox’s boring pie,” Bill Simmons chalked up the biggest portion of baseball’s waning popularity to the length of the games. Since the 1970s — perhaps baseball’s last true golden age — the number of sub-two-hour games has been shrinking at almost the same alarming rate that the number of four-hour-plus games has been growing.Hack said he has seen that trend reflected in the arguments of friends and family who don’t like to watch the sport.“The number one complaint I get from people who don’t like baseball is that games are boring. It’s too much to sit there and watch,” he said. “But those same people will say they love going to a game and being there and experiencing the ballpark.”Indeed, it seems much of baseball’s continuing allure is based on trappings of the game that have little to do with what takes place on the field of play. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is as memorable for its heartfelt requests for peanuts and Cracker Jacks as it is for actually paying tribute to the sport, and its lyrics are predicated entirely on the ballpark experience.And back at Sembower Field, the faithful Hoosier fans in attendance are taking in their own corners of that experience. A father in an Orioles cap arrives slightly late but makes sure he sits in the front row with his three young sons, pointing out some of the subtleties of the game that would otherwise escape them. A woman leaves the concession stand with two hot dogs — Ball Park Franks, presumably — for herself and her husband to enjoy. An older gentleman rips into the umpires with some good-natured trash talk when he disagrees with their calls.This is the ballpark. This is why baseball is still America’s pastime. The Hoosiers didn’t end up winning, but that’s almost secondary. There’s always another game, and with it, another opportunity to come out to the ball game, root, root, root for the home team and take part in this uniquely American experience.If they don’t win, it’s a shame — but it’s not the end of the world.
(03/09/11 11:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One gets the sense from Grayceon’s third full-length album, “All We Destroy,” that it is primarily considered a metal band because frontwoman Jackie Perez Gratz lends her cello work to so many other metal bands.Grayceon is a much more refined beast, a chance for Perez Gratz’s cello to take over as the principle instrument rather than merely add texture to the heavier work of acts like Agalloch and Giant Squid.It should come as no surprise, then, that “All We Destroy” includes some of her finest moments both as a cellist and a vocalist. Guitarist Max Doyle is the one adding texture to the sound, and Perez Gratz is allowed to dominate.Album highlight “Shellmounds” sees her exploring territory she hasn’t breached before in her 40 album discography, her expressive bow and fingers transforming her cello into an extension of herself while her voice belts brooding lines about “all the bones and shards and shattered shells” with confidence.While Grayceon’s metal cred is questionable, its maturation is not. It took three albums, but the band has its masterpiece.
(02/24/11 2:21am)
Why they should, might, and won't win
(02/23/11 10:35pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Make no mistake — Norway’s To Cast a Shadow does indeed evoke the finest moments of Paradise Lost’s “Draconian Times” LP with its brand of brooding, melodic doom metal.But that doesn’t mean they won’t be called goth-rock. Frontwoman Gunnhild Huser’s deep, clean vocals, which she trades with similarly lower-register male vocals and accented growls from the band’s instrumentalists, will make sure of that.But beyond that sheen, which will surely cause some to draw comparisons between “In Memory Of” and the output of Italian mainstream darlings Lacuna Coil, To Cast a Shadow has crafted some of the most ’90s-obsessed doom of the last decade.The band is at its best when it challenges the boundaries of its genre, as with the lead Rhodes piano on “The Answer” and the operatic guest vocals of Theatre of Tragedy’s Nell Sigland on “Betula.”Unfortunately, those moments aren’t nearly common enough. Many of the riffs are generic, and a few songs lack any real hook.Still, “In Memory Of” contains some real gems, and the next To Cast a Shadow record could easily end up being a masterpiece.
(02/23/11 4:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Few bands in Bloomington play the same style of music as Clouds As Oceans.The quartet’s all-instrumental take on the post-rock genre, a sound popularized by acts like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, is a pronounced rarity in a local music scene dominated by indie rock and hip-hop. But their penchant for slow-building crescendos and simple, wordless melodies hasn’t stopped the four IU students, who comprise the band’s membership, from being accepted and appreciated locally.Guitarist and junior Nathan Siery understands the risks inherent in playing shows with bands that attract a different fan base than his own, but he said he’s been pleased with the reception Clouds As Oceans has received at gigs.“It’s been pretty cool. We even opened for a hip-hop group, and we had a pretty good show,” he said. “For the most part, people have been open to enjoying what we do, even on a mismatched bill.”Guitarist and senior Clark Dallas agreed. He said the local music community fosters the kind of appreciation that Clouds As Oceans is able to enjoy, despite the lack of a true post-rock scene.“I think the Bloomington scene is just about exposing people to new music and not necessarily worrying about genre,” he said. On “Tides,” the group’s 2010 EP, Siery and Dallas trade off jagged, meandering guitar leads over a sturdy backbone provided by senior Wyatt Worcel’s jazz-influenced drumming and junior Matt Cain’s basslines. Plenty of room is left in the margins for chimes, synthesizer, EBow and whatever other instruments and effects the band members agree upon to achieve their massive sound.“Most of the songwriting is done with all four of us,” Dallas said. “It’s a total collaboration.”Equality among members is something Clouds As Oceans has emphasized since the guys first started playing together during spring 2009. Siery said they always intended to have Clouds as Oceans be an instrumental band, and it’s not just because none of them can sing. The members orient themselves on stage in a manner that is functional for the music — for music this nuanced, a lot of eye-contact is necessary — rather than elevating a single member as the band leader.“I always liked the idea of not having a frontman,” Siery said.
(02/17/11 2:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bands at a crossroads between mediocrity and greatness tend to blossom when they’re able to share a stage with legends.It would seem that this is what happened to reggae rockers Lionize after a couple of stints opening for fellow Maryland natives Clutch.The band’s live show had always been its main selling point, but the songwriting has finally caught up with those performances. Unlike its earlier material that seemed to know it wanted rock elements and reggae elements but didn’t know how to marry them, the songs on “Destruction Manual” are bona fide fusion anthems.“Dumb and Dangerous” and “D.C. Is Tropical” ride simple, catchy choruses to pay dirt, while “Killers and Crooks” sees the band at its spacey best.What’s most striking about the new Lionize LP is how much it can sound like latter-day Clutch with a healthy appreciation for reggae instead of that band’s fling with the blues.For many acts, that would make “Destruction Manual” sound plagiaristic, but Lionize has a strong enough identity that no such accusations would be fair.
(02/10/11 1:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Evergrey frontman Tom S. Englund croons “We are liars and vultures, rapists of the weak” on “To Fit the Mold” from “Glorious Collision,” it sounds like he’s singing not just for himself and his bandmates but for the entire world. More impressively, we’re inclined to agree with him.Such is the power that an unearthly baritone grants a man. By the time the song’s chorus rolls around, Englund draws us closer to his perspective with some well-placed poignancy: “We’re scared we’ll amount to nothing, and we change to fit the mold.” He speaks for us, but we’ll allow it because he’s so right.Of course, this is not atypical of an Evergrey song. More than most metal lyricists, Englund focuses on communicating emotion through his words. This is a band that wrote a concept record about a man who joins a religious cult that condones child molestation (2004’s “The Inner Circle”), so it knows a thing or two about the most painful aspects of the human experience.This is also a band that covered pop singer and fellow Swede Dilba for one of its biggest hits, 2003’s “I’m Sorry,” so it knows a thing or two about melody, as well. Were they not so sonically distorted and lyrically tragic, the album’s opening one-two punch of “Leave It Behind Us” and “You” would be staples of rock radio. More than just Englund’s powerful voice drives these songs; it’s the combination of that voice with his expert guitar work and the ever-present keys of longtime ivory-tickler Rickard Zander. The second guitarist, bassist and drummer are all new to the band, but the integrity of the Evergrey sound is strong enough that it sounds as though they’ve been there since the beginning.Perhaps the most notable aspect of Evergrey’s modus operandi is its ability to integrate an intuitive knack for melody into relatively complicated song structures. Indeed, the finest moments of “Glorious Collision” come in its most varied songs: the aforementioned “To Fit the Mold,” album closer “... and the Distance,” and what may be the best song the band has ever written, “The Phantom Letters.”These songs take everything Evergrey is great at — tunefulness, pathos, complexity — and put them together in a way that’s not forced but logical. They’re so convincing that even as Tom S. Englund calls humanity out for its ugliness, he puts his hand on its shoulders and convinces it that everything is going to be alright.Here’s hoping he’s not wrong.
(02/10/11 12:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With eight studio albums, beginning with 1998’s seminal “The Dark Discovery,” Sweden’s Evergrey has become one of the foremost names in the burgeoning melodic metal scene. The lone member remaining from the original lineup is singer, guitarist and principle songwriter Tom S. Englund. His rich baritone voice and clarion guitar tone have become to Evergrey what Mick Jagger’s strut and Keith Richards’ drug habit were to the Rolling Stones. We gave him a call to chat about his influences, his place in the metal world and his striking similarity to Bruce Springsteen.WEEKEND How did a young Tom Englund become interested in metal?ENGLUND Various reasons, but the main reason was that I was watching a Def Leppard concert when I was a kid and I saw this line of beautiful girls lining up to get backstage with the band. I said, “That’s what I wanna do!” But as far as playing the guitar, I got into that from a band called Dire Straits. WEEKEND So you started playing guitar before you got into metal?ENGLUND Yeah, definitely. And I won a single of “Radio Ga Ga” by Queen at an amusement park, and that sort of sealed the deal for me. WEEKEND So you’ve got Brian May and Mark Knopfler. Who were some other important influences for you growing up as a guitarist?ENGLUND Yngwie Malmsteen. Iron Maiden, for sure. Metallica, of course. Queensrÿche. So many bands that I’ve met now, and when I did, I was drooling and shaking. Which is a cool thing. It’s like living childhood dreams all the time. WEEKEND When did you start playing in metal bands?ENGLUND ’90 or ’91. I started playing death metal, actually, because that was sort of the only thing I could handle at the time. I didn’t start to sing until a few weeks before we recorded the first album, which is weird. WEEKEND You’ve worked in a number of genres. You’ve done guest work with Nightrage and Dragonland, and you’re obviously best-known for Evergrey, but do you feel like you have a certain place in the metal world?ENGLUND I try to participate and widen my views of music and metal and life itself by doing as much as I can while I’m here. We’re here for a very short time, and I try to make people happy and myself happy by doing interesting things, and if it’s in death metal or jazz or harmonica music, I don’t give a damn. WEEKEND Putting Evergrey in a category is tricky. There are those who want to call you strictly progressive metal, some people want to call you power metal, some people want to call you progressive power metal. Do you think that we’ve overdone it with subgenres and sub-subgenres in today’s metal world?ENGLUND I think we overdid it like twelve years ago. When Evergrey started, I remember the first review I read. It said, “I don’t know where to put these guys.” Well, so, just leave us where we are, you know? We play metal. End of story. People are so keen on putting people in different small boxes and genres and corners. I’m not interested. We don’t even play progressive music as far as I’m concerned. WEEKEND That’s interesting. You’d find a lot of critics who would disagree with you.ENGLUND Yeah, and at the same time, it’s also very unfair to the progressive genre to label Evergrey as a progressive band because the kid who’s 12 years old who discovers Evergrey and finds out that this is progressive music and he dislikes Evergrey, then he has the totally wrong perception of what progressive music is. And of course it works the same way on the other end as well. I think we just play metal. I’ve had this discussion since I started, so I’ve just lost interest. WEEKEND There’s a certain Evergrey sound that no matter who rotates around you never really changes. Do you just have such a strong vision that no matter which musicians you have around you’ll keep creating Evergrey music?ENGLUND Oh, yeah. Evergrey has never been about compromising. I don’t care if you’re my best friend, and I don’t care if you’re my wife. Music, for me, is not about making people happy because it’s comfortable. The music comes first in every aspect, and in every decision the music is most important. Then I start caring about the people around the music. It sounds cold, it sounds weird, and it probably makes me out to be a tyrant, and if that’s what I am, then I am. I watched a documentary about Bruce Springsteen the other day from when he recorded some album from after “Born to Run,” and he was the same way as me. I watched him and I thought he was an asshole, but at the same time, I understood that that’s the way I am as well, and at the same time I appreciated what comes out of that.
(02/08/11 11:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Win Butler isn’t the first songwriter to tackle suburban sprawl. Without it, Jello Biafra wouldn’t have had anything to spew his vitriol at on those classic Dead Kennedys records and Neil Peart’s greatest work as Rush’s lyricist would never have been “Subdivisions.”Where Butler’s take on that place between the bright lights and the far, unlit unknown deviates from that of his predecessors is that he isn’t wholly condemning of the ‘burbs.In fact, the lyric booklet to Arcade Fire’s third LP, “The Suburbs,” sometimes reads more like a tribute to those uniquely North American hamlets.Whereas on their genre-bending debut “Funeral,” the songs’ protagonists are trying to dig tunnels out of their neighborhoods, “The Suburbs” sees them driving back.It isn’t without its flaws, and the requisite criticisms of consumerism abound (“Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,” intones Regine Chassagne on album’s highlight “Sprawl II”), but it’s still home.Musically, “The Suburbs” mostly draws from the more urgent, driving side of Arcade Fire found on songs like “Rebellion (Lies)” and “Wake Up.” Gone is the dreary weltschmerz found in heaps on “Neon Bible”; several of the album’s finest moments are pure bouncing 1980s electro dressed up in the framework of the classic Arcade Fire sound. The album’s only true downfall is evident even when glancing at the track listing: It has 16 songs, and it’s very rare than any band has 16 unique things to say in a regular album cycle. Arcade Fire is no exception. There’s a 12-track masterpiece hidden somewhere in “The Suburbs” yearning to breathe free, but the handful of tracks thatdon’t work hold it back.It might not be as profound a statement as “Funeral” or even “Neon Bible,” but the latest full-length from Canada’s favorite critical darlings is still a worthwhile investment of any indie fan’s time and money.
(02/02/11 11:08pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card hangs on the wall above Jack McCrory’s office door at Ace Pawn Shop at 532 S. Walnut St.The card sold at an auction for $82,000 in 2009.Unfortunately, the one in McCrory’s shop isn’t real.“That’s what we call an F.L.E.,” McCrory said. “A fine learning experience.”McCrory owns three Ace Pawn locations in southern Indiana. He bought the Michael Jordan card from a customer several years ago without getting it authenticated first and later found out that it was a counterfeit. It stays on the wall as a reminder to be vigilant of fakes, phonies and things that are too good to be true.At times, the top-rated History program “Pawn Stars” seems to be one such thing, according to McCrory.“It’s interesting,” McCrory said with a long pause between his first and second words. “But it’s a bit staged. The way I understand it, Chumlee doesn’t even work for the pawn shop. He works for the production company.”Whether that’s true or not, “Pawn Stars” has certainly caused a stir in the pawnbroking community. Its flair for the more theatrical aspects of the industry has at times raised the eyebrows of Bloomington’s pawnbrokers. Tyrone Love, an employee at Ace Pawn, went to the show’s famed Gold & Silver Pawnshop when he was on vacation in Las Vegas to find some earrings for his wife.“I didn’t like it. They put a guy out of the store just for looking at the camera too much,” Love said.Bill Haggerty, a manager at TomCats Pawnshop, located at 750 W. 17th St., said he doesn’t think the show depicts a fiscally feasible way to run a pawn shop.“We can’t call in an expert for every item that comes into the shop to get it appraised and authenticated,” Haggerty said.Kevin Mack, an employee at TomCats, has his own hang-ups about the show. He said that rival show “Hardcore Pawn” on truTV, a show lauded for showing the human aspects of the industry, is “more like the real pawn world than ‘Pawn Stars.’”But despite all of the issues they have with it, Bloomington’s pawnbrokers said they still watch “Pawn Stars.”Mack said he recognizes where the show diverts from reality, but he said he still thinks it has value as a learning tool for people interested in the pawn business.“When I watch the show, I notice them doing so many of the same things we do. Standard operating procedures are the same in Nevada or Michigan or here,” he said.“It kind of reminds me of work,” Haggerty said. While many people watch television to escape the workaday life, Haggerty does not. He admits that he isn’t immune to the appeal of the show, which he deems universal.“Everyone likes to see that next treasure. You’ll see things in a pawn shop that you won’t see other places,” he said.McCrory said he concurs.“Viewers see a pawn shop as a place where neat used merchandise comes in,” he said, defending the show’s appeal while leaving room for another note of disagreement. “A lot of what we do is pretty routine.”Still, the over-the-top aspects of the industry that the show plays up can also be found in local pawnbroking. Both Ace Pawn and TomCats have seen some bizarre pieces in their time in Bloomington. While some of the big-ticket items seen on “Pawn Stars” will likely never appear in either of those stores, the employees there have seen things that are every bit as stupefying as anything that’s been on the show.“I wrote a loan on a lady’s false teeth once,” McCrory said. “We were pretty sure she’d come back for them.”She did, but a similar transaction at TomCats didn’t end as well.“I once bought an artificial leg,” Haggerty said. “Guy never came back for it.”Even with these occasional extreme oddities thrown in the mix, the staffs at both stores emphasized that their day-to-day operations are much more routine than those depicted on “Pawn Stars.”Crucially, though, Haggerty applauds the show for working to change the image of the pawnbroking industry that was allowed to prevail in pop culture for decades upon decades before it premiered.“In movies, when someone’s in the seedy part of town, you see a pawnshop,” he said. “The show offers a human side to the business that you don’t often see.”For that simple reason, no amount of criticism Bloomington’s pawnbrokers can level at the show will stop them from watching it from time to time.Perhaps one day Rick Harrison will even buy a fake Michael Jordan rookie card.
(02/02/11 10:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Pawn Stars” is one of the most popular shows on cable. Its new episodes on Jan. 24 earned 6.7 and 6.9 million viewers respectively, nearly doubling the ratings of the top show on any competing channel that night. Its principle character is Rick Harrison, a Harley-riding brainiac who knows everything there is to know about your heirloom and can call in an expert on the off chance that he doesn’t. We called Rick up to pick his brain about his appearances in Indiana, his show and the craziest thing he’s ever seen come into his shop.WEEKEND In the last few months you’ve come to the Hoosier Park Casino in Anderson and also to Stoney’s in Evansville. What do you like about making appearances in Indiana?HARRISON It’s just a great state out there. I love the people. WEEKEND As the show has gained more popularity, you’ve seen a lot more of the off-the-beaten-path and unique items that you won’t see in your average pawnshop. Do you still operate like other pawnshops and see smaller items like XBoxes and the like?HARRISON Oh, yeah. I still see all that stuff. What you don’t see on television is that I write at least three thousand pawn tickets a month. WEEKEND Is most of your business still in those smaller items?HARRISON I do a lot of business in those, but I’ve always been a more high-end pawnshop. The fact is I know a lot more than most pawnshops. I’ve done this since I was a kid, and I’ve been a bookworm since I was a kid, so I’m pretty good with a lot of rare antiques and a lot of high-end stuff. WEEKEND Where did you get your expertise on so many various fields?HARRISON I’ve done this all my life, and I’ve always been a huge bookworm. And it’s always been either history or science books. WEEKEND Why do you think people are so interested in the pawn business and learning about it?HARRISON As far as my show goes, I think the reason people like it so much is because it’s a little bit of everything. It’s “Pimp My Ride.” It’s “American Chopper” one weekend. It’s a history lesson. There’s the family aspect. There’s all those things. WEEKEND Is there anything that has come into your shop that you don’t have an expert or buddy you can call up to learn more about?HARRISON Not that I can think of. I mean, I know so many people. What you don’t see in the show is the zillions of other people I know. I never throw away a business card. WEEKEND In 2003, Dave Attell did an episode of “Insomniac” on Comedy Central where he came into your shop and talked with you. At the time, did you ever expect your pawnshop to be the center of its own cable reality show?HARRISON You know, we pitched the show for a few years, and the next thing you know, it ended up happening. Anytime I was on Dave Attell or something like that, it really boosted business, and so I figured, if I get my own show, it’ll boost my business all the time. WEEKEND If you had to narrow it down to one item that stands out among the rest as the most unusual, what would it be?HARRISON It would probably be a book on alchemy that was in Sir Isaac Newton’s library. It’s on how to transmute base metals into gold. It doesn’t work.WEEKEND Have you tried?HARRISON (Laughs) No, I haven’t. But I’m pretty sure.
(01/27/11 3:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>We've always wondered about that sign outside of Mother Bear's that touts it as the 4th best pizza place in the nation. It's good pizza, and we're not knocking it, but there are so many other types of pizza around the country of all different shapes and sizes.Here are just a few.Hawaiian pizzaTo say Hawaiian pizza is from Hawaii is about as uninformed as saying Pizza Hut is Italian. The name derives from the toppings of pineapple and ham, and Honolulu native and IU sophomore Karen Lee doesn’t even care for it. “Honestly, most people in Hawaii don’t eat Hawaiian-style pizza,” Lee said. “Our menus are very tailored toward Asians with the large Asian population there, so we enjoy pizzas with Thai peanut sauce instead of normal marinara.” Lee also said the pizza at Aver’s or Mother Bear’s is creative enough to do well in Hawaii.Chicago pizzaThe pizza in Chicago is known as some of the best, and there are four kinds. Whether you want deep-dish, stuffed, pan or thin-crust, there is a pizza for you in the Windy City. The deep-dish style originated at the still-standing Pizzeria Uno in 1943, and by cooking the crust first and layering the toppings and cheese heavily, Chicago invented a style completely different from the Italian original. That expanded in the 1970s when Giordano’s and Nancy’s added more toppings over crust to create stuffed pizza. For something “lighter,” as in no fork and knife necessary, Chicago thin crust pizza is still a crunchy yet saucy treat. “Nothing compares to a Giordano’s deep-dish pizza,” said IU junior Maggie Dunphy, who is from the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Ill. Dunphy said you get more of the delicious crust for your pizza in Chicago than anywhere else. “Thin crust just holds the pizza together, but in deep-dish the crust is definitely accented,” Dunphy said. California pizzaAlthough Wolfgang Puck and California Pizza Kitchen are almost everywhere, the best place to get authentic California-style pizza is still where it originated in 1980: Berkeley, Calif. IU graduate and Berkeley resident Livy Wilz can’t speak more highly of a pizza style willing to experiment in cheeses, vegetables and meats over sauce and grease. Wilz recommends a Berkeley staple, The Cheese Board Collective pizzeria. “The pies at the Cheese Board have a fairly thin crust, no sauce and are topped with garlicky-fresh, local and all-vegetarian ingredients,” Wilz said. “The pizza that they serve here is more like a frittata or something that you would get in Italy compared to what you find elsewhere in America. They combine things that you wouldn’t normally expect on a pizza, like squash, kale or sweet corn, but it’s always delicious.”St. Louis pizzaMemphis has its barbecue and New Orleans has its jambalaya, but those aren’t the only cities located on the banks of the Mississippi River to have a trademark food. St. Louis is known nationwide for its unique brand of thin-crust pizza, which is usually made with Provel cheese. IU junior and St. Louis native Andrew Blank loves his hometown pie but said he understands the reluctance of others to try it. “It’s been my experience that many non-St. Louis natives have trouble acquiring a taste for this style of pizza.” Blank doesn’t hold a grudge against Bloomington pizzerias for not serving his hometown pies, though. “The pizzas at places like Mother Bear’s or Aver’s, for example, are more substantial, more dense, which is a nice change of pace,” he said. New York City pizzaNo other city in America immediately evokes images of pizza quite like New York. Its thin, foldable slices are as much a staple of American food culture as apple pie and Cracker Jack. IU freshman and Manhattan native Matt Lederman said he likes his hometown pies so much that eating pizza in Bloomington is a wholly unappealing prospect. “New York City pizza is amazing. I can’t eat the pizza here because of it,” he said. Some of that aversion, no doubt, comes from the Midwest’s penchant for a somewhat thicker crust than what they eat on the East Coast. Not being in the world’s biggest grocery center anymore doesn’t help, either. “It has the perfect-sized crust and always really fresh ingredients,” Lederman said about his beloved NYC pies. In his mind, Monroe County’s pizzerias just don’t stand up. Detroit pizzaDetroit has a long history with pizza. Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan also owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983 to 1992, and entrepreneur Mike Ilitch currently owns both Little Caesars and the Detroit Red Wings. Beyond the big chains, though, Detroit has forged its own pizza identity by inventing a variation on the Chicago-style deep dish that keeps locals coming back for more.IU junior Matt Boyd said he prefers Buddy’s Pizza among local Detroit pizzerias. “They win awards every year, and their pizza is a mix between a basic pan pizza and Chicago-style. It’s not quite deep-dish, but it’s a little thicker and has toppings and sauce below the cheese with another layer of sauce on top,” he said. Boyd hasn’t found anything like Buddy’s in Bloomington, but he does enjoy Mother Bear’s and Monroe County Pizza. Of course, there is still one way he can feel like he’s furthering the Detroit pizza cause here at IU.“There is a Little Caesars if I want to support the hometown company,” he said.
(01/20/11 3:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Whether the title “Western” evokes a sense of nostalgia or a grimace on one’s face, this genre of entertainment is an indisputably influential one. Starting in 1903 and continuing into the present day, the Western has contributed immensely to American pop culture. Here are a few of the more memorable and timeless movies.Silent Era“The Great Train Robbery” (1903) Believe it or not, this black-and-white silent film was the first narrative cinematic experience ever created. This prototypical classic details the standard outlaws vs. the sheriff pursuit throughout its eleven minute duration. This movie rode in on the coattails of other Western-based entertainment including the dime novel and, of course, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.” Interestingly enough, this Western was shot on location in New Jersey of all places. Not so rustic, eh?“The Iron Horse” (1924)As one of John Ford’s earliest and rarest films (technically he’s uncredited), this silent epic charts the construction of the transcontinental railroad that connected East to West. This Western was typical of the genre in the silent era, the kind of film that celebrated American achievement (a boldly stapled-in shot of Abraham Lincoln’s statue bust closes the patriotic film) and touted film itself as an expression of an art form and a historical document.John Ford Era“Stagecoach” (1939)Westerns were never the same after John Ford made “Stagecoach,” arguably one of the most influential films ever made. With John Wayne in the lead role, it redefined the hero as less than fully noble. But more importantly, it changed kinetic action scenes entirely. There’s a famous chase between a group of Native Americans and the stagecoach Wayne is trying to protect that is a marvel of black-and-white cinematography.“High Noon” (1952) In Fred Zinnemann’s black-and-white classic of the American West, two great strides were made for the genre. First, Tex Ritter’s beautiful, tragic rendition of “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’” was the first true Western theme song, a concept that composers like Ennio Morricone would run with in the 1960s. Second, its sheriff hero (Gary Cooper) isn’t greeted with support from the townspeople he hopes to enlist in a posse to help arrest a group of bandits coming to town on the noon train. Instead, they react with indifference, and he’s forced to gun down the criminals alone. He leaves the town silently and somberly, the entire Western genre uprooted behind him.Golden Era“The Searchers” (1956) John Ford stormed back to the Western genre in 1956 with this feature starring John Wayne that shone a harsh, honest light on the racism inherent in the frontier experience. When Wayne’s young niece is kidnapped by Comanche Indians, he undertakes an obsessive quest to find her that eventually spans over a decade. When he does find her, he decides she’s become so assimilated with the Comanche that he should just kill her. Of course, he eventually relents, but even the ostensibly sunny closing shot after her happy reunion with her family is tinged with pathos: There’s no place for Wayne in the family, so it’s back to the frontier he goes.“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) This John Ford studded classic starring John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart entails the vintage 1960s Western ambiance that one would fully expect. The plot concerns itself with outlaws who live outside the fumbling arms of the law, a machismo gunslinger who keeps the town in one piece and an educated city boy who just wants to bring law and order to the rough-and-tumble town. Chock full of saloon scenes, standoffs and resonate one-liners, this film pushes the viewer to ask, “Why isn’t every man as righteous as John freakin’ Ford?”Revisionist Era“The Wild Bunch” (1969)Sam Peckinpah released “The Wild Bunch” to some of the most polarizing reception of all time in 1969. That’s because the film was, and is, one of the most violent ever made. The film follows a ruthless bunch of bank robbers whose last big score goes horribly wrong. It’s a coldly suggestive film about the nature of fate, all punctuated by an explosively violent gun battle against the entire Mexican army that goes on for about 15 minutes in the film’s finale.“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969)In an era marked by exceptionally dark, violent Westerns, this film by George Roy Hill (which eventually lent part of its title to star Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival) put the lawless world of frontier robbery in a much more lighthearted context, and even adapted some of the Summer of Love’s feel-good vibes to a frontier vista. It will forever be remembered for its anachronistic employment of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and the witty banter between leads Redford and Paul Newman. It endures because it embodied a free, drug-laced era, even when the rest of its genre tried to ignore those truths.Modern Era“Unforgiven” (1992) As the star of some of the most instantly recognizable Westerns ever made, it only makes sense that Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece as a director would come in a bold redefinition of the genre. Recipient of four Oscars, “Unforgiven” is likely the most inspired, important Western made post-“Searchers.” Eastwood turns the myth of the Western hero inside out at point-blank range through the barrel of a shotgun. The relative dearth of Westerns made since then can probably be at least partly attributed to a reluctance to try to follow this film.“True Grit” (2010) This Coen brothers remake augments the slovenliness of a Western marshall played by Jeff Bridges, who sets out on a mission to find a killer. This film may be a bit more true to the real “grit” of what the Wild West actually entailed for pioneers and the like. The standard American Western is not dead with this revitilization of the tradition. Given a 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, this film breathes some life into a film commonly thought of as “old hat.” Way to go, Bros.
(01/13/11 1:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Have you ever seen “Poltergeist”? It was a little bit like that.When I turned on the television last night hoping to see a basketball game or maybe a “King of Queens” rerun, I found only static. From that static, images and words slowly began to reveal themselves, and before long I knew what I was watching. It was a recap of 2011 in television, sent to my flat screen from the not-so-distant future.The phantasmagoric montage showed me clips from shows that have not yet aired, and I was able to sort the good from the bad without the hassle of actually watching anything.The first thing I learned was that two traditionally strong shows in their first seasons without crucial cast members – Fox’s “American Idol” without Simon Cowell and NBC’s “The Office” without Steve Carell – were shells of what they once were. Steven Tyler was a sorry substitution for Simon’s vitriol on “Idol,” and the funny supporting cast of NBC’s most popular comedy fell flat without a clear central character to help guide their storylines.The electromagnetic crystal ball then segued seamlessly into a recap of the other NBC comedies: “30 Rock,” too, continued its decline from its earlier greatness, and “Outsourced” and “Perfect Couples” were canceled midseason after bouts with poor ratings and general awfulness. “Parks and Recreation” and “Community,” however, were expected to sweep the Emmy comedy categories after tremendous showings in their third and second seasons, respectively.The ghoulish year-in-review then sputtered out two big recaps of drama series — one good, and one horrible. The good series was HBO’s “Big Love,” which concluded its run with a masterful fifth season whose finale tied up all the loose ends in a satisfying way. The bad series was the sophomore season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” a series that started with a brilliant pilot and started spiraling downward immediately afterward. By the end of the second season, it was little more than a gratuitous bloodbath with so little in common with the comic book that spawned it that it could hardly be called an adaptation at all.The last thing that the ghost of television yet-to-come showed me wasn’t a TV show at all but a movie made by two men that TV has been very good to: Adult Swim’s Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Their “Billion Dollar Movie,” co-produced by Will Ferrell, took the place of a sixth season of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” and transcended even its absurd greatness. In a flash, the static ghoul showed me all of the guest appearances that the movie would include, but it went too fast for me to recognize any besides John C. Reilly and David Cross.Just before my magic future TV feed shut off, it granted me one last message: What we will remember as the best shows of 2011 aren’t coming later in the year.They’re here.