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(03/15/10 6:00am)
A singer-songwriter, by traditional standards, depicts a
bard-like guitar player who can interweave abstract or direct tales
of social, personal or political commentary. The most common image
behind this phrase has to be a young Bob Dylan, crafted in the mold
of Woody Guthrie and singing with a similar country flavor and
""This Machine Kills Fascists"" political motivation. This ideal
evolved with technology and genre amalgamation, but to this day,
grasps at that mysticism of being the informed poet, using either a
guitar or piano to spread musical messages. In other words,
singer-songwriters, according to this traditional ideal, are not
supposed to be superficial pop artists. They know music is meant
for more than that.
(03/10/10 6:00am)
""I'm destroying everything that wouldn't make me more
like Bruce Springsteen""
(03/01/10 6:00am)
The resurgence of world music has situated Paul Simon's
Graceland as an instrumental reference for contemporary
audiophiles, the new Pet Sounds. It also won the Grammy Award for
Album of the Year in 1986, was immediately heralded as introducing
the world music scene to mainstream music and continues to receive
universal critical reverence.
(02/25/10 6:00am)
The past few records from punk Chicago natives Alkaline Trio
have been staggeringly disappointing when compared to their earlier
gems, specifically From Here to Infirmary. That album was
the point at which the band put together a completely comprehensive
sound, mixing their dark, haunting lyrical content with the
bass-driven focus that made their songs so enthralling. Their
seventh studio album, This Addiction, marks a fine return
to form for the band.
(02/25/10 6:00am)
The Madison-raised, now Brooklyn-residing band Locksley still
maintains its vintage-loving reputation with the energetic and
slightly hectic ensemble of tunes on their second album, Be In
Love. The carefree feeling this foursome generates through
jazzy guitars, wild drumming and catchy harmonies is sure to
produce major booty shaking, or at least a foot tapping of sorts
for those who resist a total lack of inhibitions.
(01/21/10 6:00am)
Lots of NoDoz, and plenty of Dew."" That's how I respond when my
close friends ask me how I ever got through U.S. Operative basic
training without my superiors catching wind of my debilitating
disorder. I'm agent Peter Stotch, and I have narcolepsy. Sometimes
I'll go all day without falling asleep. Other times I'll find
myself curled up like a kitten in the middle of the street.
Regardless, I'm the best there is at what I do, and I'll be damned
if the occasional mid-day snooze is gonna keep me from my work.
(01/19/10 6:00am)
Another decade of music has come and gone. Every one—let's say
from the 1950s on—embodies shifts in cultural and technological
influences allowing unique artists and stories to develop in pop
music. And as much as change is resented in almost all forms, it is
inevitable. However, for avid music listeners, it becomes important
to separate juvenile fascinations over greatness from truly
relatable artists who are relevant to your life in ways deeper than
their trendiness and your ability to talk about a band everyone can
relate to.
(01/19/10 6:00am)
Vampire Weekend is a gimmick—much of the
band's initial appeal lives in their painstakingly planned image,
both visually and musically. Just as Angus Young dressed in prep
school clothes to bring attention to AC/DC, the members of Vampire
Weekend consistently don Wayfarers, polo shirts and boat shoes to
reinforce their prep-school image.
(12/15/09 6:00am)
It has become extremely difficult to point out exactly where
Bradford Cox's strengths lie. Between his affective and
disorienting work with post-punk noise-rockers, Deerhunter, and his
spacey solo project, Atlas Sound, he has shown a breadth and
dedication to his craft far beyond many of his contemporaries. His
latest release under the pseudonym Atlas Sounds, Logos, is
the summation of a life full of disconnect, adventure and genuine
gratitude. Opening track ""The Light That Failed"" begins as a
soupy mess of loops, Cox's voice rising up from the mess and
beginning the coagulation into ""An Orchid,"" a track punctuated
with noxiously lazy guitars and atmospheric vocals.
(12/11/09 6:00am)
Heather Mendygral, Arts Editor 2001
(12/11/09 6:00am)
The past decade saw an overflow of tightly wound dance music and
hilariously sharp lyricists, but no one in the past ten years was
tighter or more incisive than James Murphy, aka LCD
Soundsystem.
(12/11/09 6:00am)
Of course, a lot of bands released great albums in the 2000s,
and TV on the Radio certainly is one of them. They released 3.5
albums during the decade to increasing popular and critical
success, and the content of those 3.5 albums is almost ceaselessly
creative, sometimes seeming as if they've assimilated the entirety
of music to formulate their own pot-clanging, jury-rigged
harmonies. From rock 'n' roll to doo wop, electronic and post-punk,
they produce a synthesis that feels often gauzy but precise,
electronic but warm and ambitious but still natural. They are one
of the most unique, interesting and potent bands currently making
music, and have been since their debut 2003 EP (Young
Liars).
(12/09/09 6:00am)
For the past two years, I've made adamant assertions that Spoon
is the Pavement of this decade. They're the two bands every indie
kid can agree on. The two are both immediately recognizable and
accessible. They cue emotion more like film directors than actual
musicians, relying on a vision of inter-studio relationships more
than musical talent.
(12/04/09 6:00am)
When most of the musical world became acquainted with Arcade
Fire via their 2004 debut Funeral, there was no trend or
gimmickry by which someone could easily characterize the band; they
weren't wearing futuristic costumes, rehashing '60s rock 'n' roll,
or auto-tuning their vocals. All anyone could talk about was how
fucking good the album was—like, astonishingly, breathtakingly
good, and even more-so because just a month earlier, almost no one
had heard of the band.
(12/03/09 6:00am)
There's a strong case to be made for the Strokes as image of the
decade. Armed with leather and ample whiskey, they captivated every
camera with their lack of concern for, well, anything. Onstage or
off, their encompassing indifference created a charmingly endearing
dirt-bag bravado. They resurrected Lou Reed's grimy façade and
paired it with James Dean's rebel-without-a-cause persona. They
nailed rich-boy anarchic impetuousness with economical precision.
They were good kids doing bad things, which let wealthy high
schoolers sing along without making the scene passé.
(12/01/09 6:00am)
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs balance their own accolades with a multitude
of indie-music superstar collaborations, especially by frontwoman
Karen O. The punk-pop bombast on their first studio album,
Fever to Tell, dragged the critical spotlight to the Yeah
Yeah Yeahs, and they have kept that shining beacon of acclaim
firmly engaged ever since. Their studio albums meld a Heart-like
fondness for heavy guitars and strong female vocals and a Sigur Ros
affinity for using the voice as its own instrument instead of a
simple vehicle for lyrics. Karen O and Co.'s joint efforts run the
gamut from the purely musical—as on their earlier songs with TV on
the Radio and their recent collaboration with the Flaming Lips—to
more cinema-centric musical collaborations—like their partnership
with Arcade Fire for the soundtrack to nostalgia porn ""Where the
Wild Things Are."" If the band's music alone isn't enough to land
them in the company of the Top 10 Bands of the 2000s, their
ubiquitous work should.
(11/19/09 6:00am)
His quotes coming out of Rome last year were pretty
startling.
(11/03/09 6:00am)
In an interview with Spin magazine after the Strokes were named
band of the year on pure residual fame off their debut the previous
year, lead singer and principal songwriter Julian Casablancas
admitted he wrote his best songs while drunk. In retrospect, it was
probably more complicated than that. Two albums and seven years
later, Casablancas is in a precarious position, forced to battle
for legitimacy on his long-anticipated solo debut, Phrazes for
the Young.
(10/01/09 6:00am)
Don't let the ALRC fool you, Madison likes to drink. Despite the
university's attempts over the years to convince everyone
otherwise, UW is a school that likes to have fun. And what better
way to have fun than a few rousing drinking games? Everyone plays
beer pong and flip cup, and the only real arguments on those games
are whether you should leave cups or pull (definitely leave), and
whether you should call the game flip cup, flippy cup or (God
forbid) tippy cup. And everyone has played the many variations of
quarters, circle of death and president, to the point where while
they are still fun, you long for something new. Here are five
lesser known drinking games that should become household favorites
in no time.
(08/23/09 6:00am)
Friday, August 7
