('The real ' - Anglophile rock)
In its fourth release, Blackout, The Dropkick Murphys show why they are everyone's favorite barroom heroes: hard rocking, Celtic-influenced tunes that are tightly produced and sound great.
In its fourth release, Blackout, The Dropkick Murphys show why they are everyone's favorite barroom heroes: hard rocking, Celtic-influenced tunes that are tightly produced and sound great.
Winsome, wishful, witless. It always seems that the poets who compare love to nature are straining to capture some sort of profound redundancy, something that makes them seem wise and outer-worldly. Is man afraid to admit that he has created anything beautiful? The beauties of awkwardness and bashful mistakes are lost on the Pernice Brothers, who stretch for pleasing pop melodies mildly drifting amongst lyrics of romanticism that are so universal they're vaguely forgettable.
Deerhoof have managed to put out a perfectly delectable pop record with its fifth release, Apple O.' Satomi's vocals are candy-sweet and never fail to add the icing on the bubble gum-flavored cake that is Deerhoof. Deerhoof is pop music for indie snobs; the guitars are layered and even heavy at times, and the bass is dancy and clean. The first two tracks, "Dummy Discards a Heart" and "Heart Failure," are fast-paced and frantic, but keep an upbeat rhythm that is easy to get caught up in.
Fountains of Wayne songwriters Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger, the men responsible for the Academy Award-nominated theme to Tom Hanks's "That Thing You Do," have put their pop sensibilities back to good work on Welcome Interstate Managers.
Soft Spot is your basic Clem Snide album. There are songs about loss and loneliness, which are intensified with the band's smooth melodies and lead singer, Eef Barzelay's, calming hypnotic voice. Listeners may not comprehend every line on the album, but will always enjoy the precious intricacies that lead them around a focalized point. Barzelay's lyrics create a poetic labyrinth in his music.
Tricky does a better job admitting his fears through music than titling his newest Vulnerable -- the overstatement almost does him an injustice by reducing his depth to a cliché. His textured electronica is a mixture of beats and fittingly barely-strange samples, with old-time sounding blues harmonicas mixed piecemeal with the drum machines. But the haunting necessity of this 13-song disc comes in the vocals.
Sure, Drive-By Truckers is a silly name for a rock band. And sure, putting out a Southern rock record in 2003 is about as hip to some people as putting out a new polka record in 2003. Conviction means something though , as does mastery of the form. Drive-By Truckers have both, and with their new album Decoration Day they continue to update a sound that supposedly died about 25 years ago.
One needs only to read about a new Hollywood black list or to hear the indignation shown against those entertainers objecting to the war in Iraq to know that many people feel art and politics are a dangerous mix. An artist or entertainer who makes political commentary, especially commentary that's against government policy, risks public condemnation. Through the influence of their art, artists may have the power to create social upheaval.
Ah, the romantic tale of a writer and his stenographer. "Alex and Emma" achieves its purpose as an intelligent romantic comedy, but the movie fluctuates back and forth between being charmingly cute and slow to sit through.
It's hard to fault a movie that offers nothing less than what it promises. "From Justin to Kelly," the movie made-for-profit and starring the original "American Idol" stars Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson, is a non-stop barrage of product placement, good-looking young people, dance scenes and finely-crafted pop tunes.
"Hulk" is an action movie. "Hulk" is a drama. Does the movie, like its protagonist, have a split personality? No. "Hulk" is both action and drama, blending together to form one fine movie.
If all the things I could be rallying my efforts toward in the world of popular music, Radiohead would seem to be the least likely of targets. That's absolutely wrong though, Radiohead is the perfect mark for animosity and chagrin not only for its devoted breed of know-nothing know-it-alls, but for its own pretensions of the musical variety.
Someone once asked how it all started for me. "What was that one song that made you want to be a musician?" or "Why is it that all you ever seem to talk about is music?" OK, to be fair, 'someone' is a little less accurate than 'just about everyone who knows me.'
It's an unseasonably cool summer night. Ascending upon a local Chinese eatery following an endless car ride, I'm tired and not the least bit hungry -- Starbucks is needed, not Schezuan. The purpose: interviewing Colleen Jankovic and John Landis (no, not the director of "Animal House"), the brainchildren behind Sprocket to the Moon -- Bloomington's brand-new, first of its kind independent film distributor.
Rockstar Games has become a major player within the video game industry these past few years, as its "Grand Theft Auto" series has blown-up into a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. "Midnight Club II," the sequel to one of its lesser, but nonetheless entertaining games, continues the proud, deviant tradition set forth by the label. "MCII" is edgy fun, but it lacks the grit and perversity that made "GTA III" and "Vice City" so damned cool.
"Narc" is one of the best cop flicks I have ever seen. As such, it went woefully ignored during its all-too-brief theatrical run this past winter. Now that the film is available on a jam-packed DVD, it'd be a crime for any cineaste worth his or her salt to miss it.
When art takes to the skies, the birds are not the only ones that notice. If they were, then a woman driving by wouldn't pull over suddenly because she was so affected by the artwork. If they were, then a flood of artwork from all over the state wouldn't be pouring into Bloomington right now. And if the birds truly were the only ones that noticed, then a deluge of positive comments never would have reached the ears of the four founders of Your Art Here, letting them know that their point had been made.
The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center will present its annual Juneteenth "Celebration of Freedom" on Saturday. The celebration will take place at Bryan Park and will last from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Gloria Gibson, associate vice chancellor of multicultural affairs, will give the opening remarks, followed by the keynote speaker, Paulette Paterson Dilworth, from the IU School of Education.
Today, the IU Board of Trustees will vote on the approval of phase two of a new 65,000-square foot Multidisciplinary Science Building on the IU-Bloomington campus. The new building will be part of the newly created science district on campus and "is primarily to be able to address the idea of providing additional lab space and classrooms for various science efforts," IU spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said.
The Supreme Court announced its decision in Grutter v. Bollinger Monday, deeming the affirmative action admissions policies of University of Michigan School of Law to be within constitutional boundaries. The final decision in the case was a close 5-4 vote. Daniel O. Conkle, professor at IU School of Law-Bloomington, explained that by looking at past cases with similar subject matter, the close split of this case was not hard to predict. However, he said it was never certain which side would take the slim majority.