SUSHI AT ITS SWEETEST
Restaurant Review: Kuni’s Sushi Bar
by Lara Nordone
If you’re a curious about cultural food, you will probably find a great deal of pleasure in dining at Kuni’s Sushi Bar, a modest Japanese restaurant on Elmwood Avenue. Kuni’s presents a simple, yet graceful, atmosphere that makes you feel right at home. Although it’s a small restaurant with only a handful of tables and a sushi bar that can only seat up to ten people, the intimate environment only seems to add to the simplistic and cozy ambiance inside.
The décor of the place is much like what you’d expect at any other Japanese restaurant, such as the unique dishware that sushi is served on, or the little glasses that sake comes in, complete with Japanese box lights that hang in the room.
The appetizing menu sports a quote on the front reading “a little bit of everything” and remains true to that claim. Kuni’s offers a variety of fabulously arranged dishes, most of which are fairly small portions, so as to enable the customer to have a taste of several different items if they are having trouble deciding. Kuni’s also offers a decent variety of exquisite sushi and sashimi, enough to please the avid fish eater. That is not to forget the traditional and delicious Japanese salads and soups, including the Miso Soup that changes ingredients every day.
In the Light Dishes portion of the menu you can find items such as tempura vegetables and seafood, tofu, various types of dumplings, grilled fish, seasoned chicken, and more seafood. Simply put, there is plenty of variety for people inclined to stay away from raw fish.
As for the Sushi portion of the menu, expect to find pieces or rolls and even chef combinations for items such as tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy tuna, vegetarian, eel, California rolls, and many more.
The prices are nothing to sneeze at either. They range from $1.75 to $20 on the menu, but don’t forget that most of the portions are small. If you’re there for more than just a little taste, you might want to order a few things on the menu. Compared to many other Japanese restaurants in the area, Kuni’s seems to be in a fairly affordable price range for college students, along with having a casual and comfortable environment that diverse crowds can enjoy.
Kuni’s has a variety of delectable beverages ranging from wines and beers to non-alcoholic beverages such as soda, tea, and bottled water. Kuni’s also has several different types of sake, an alcoholic beverage made of rice, particular to Japan.
And if you’re in the mood after your meal for even more of a taste of this delightful little place, you might want to partake in the several unique flavors of ice cream that are offered, such as sweet red bean, mango, and green tea ice cream. If you’re unsure of which to try, the sweet red bean comes highly recommended.
If you’re not looking to sit down in such a small place that is most often booming with business, you’re in luck. Take out is available at Kuni’s, although they unfortunately do not deliver. About the only downside of this place is that it is not open as often as one would hope. Closed on both Sunday and Monday, Kuni’s is only open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Besides that little quirk in scheduling, Kuni’s is worth giving a try, whether you are a fish-fiend or just friends with one.
STARS BURN BRIGHTLY
CD Review: Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
9/10
by Christopher Ahearn
Anyone who pays attention to the fickle and affected indie-music world knows that bands tend to live near each other, and when one group in their city’s scene blows up, several other acts are sure to follow. With the recent ascendancy of bands like The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and The Unicorns, the hype gods seem to have their sights set on the small, yet prolific neighborhood of artists living in the English-speaking section of Montreal. If talent is any indication of future success, Stars, a four-piece rock band who share members with their label mates Broken Social Scene, will be the next big thing for the city.
Their third album, Set Yourself on Fire, released quietly last year just as we were all packing up and heading home for winter break, is simply put, pure saccharine-pop bliss. It picks up where their last album, Heart, left off, creating a dazzlingly dreamy musical world all its own. Though the album’s foreboding title, and the short clip that opens it—“When there’s nothing left to burn, you must set yourself on fire”—seem to foreshadow a dark work, the feeling that Set Yourself on Fire produces in the listener is much more like that of being wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket rather than first degree burns.
From the moment that the harrowing strings of the opening song, “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” sound, until the last chords of the keyboard fade into silence on the closing track, Stars are in top form. Their sound is dense yet catchy; an aesthetically appealing blend of synth-pop and indie rock, with a dash of romantic orchestration.
Set Yourself on Fire is a break-up album, an optimistic ode to heartbroken lovers with just the right amount of melancholic underpinning. The vocalizing duties are split between the breathy singing of guitarist Amy Milan, and soft crooning of keyboardist Torquil Campbell, making for beautiful harmonies that perfectly evoke the albums’ themes. The songs, which act as a sort of inner-monologue for single 20-somethings, oscillate between danceable pop numbers and slower, more reflective ballads of regret and loss.
The record’s first two songs mark its standout section, with the beautiful fluidity of “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” juxtaposed against the synth-driven titular track, “Set Yourself on Fire,” which makes you want to jump up wherever you are and shake your ass. As a whole though, the album is extremely cohesive, all of its songs coming together to create one heart-rending work of art, with nary a filler track to be found.
As any artist who’s survived a harsh Buffalo winter can tell you, it is often the most extreme weather and isolation that brings about the best work. It should be no surprise then that Set Yourself on Fire, created in the midst of a bitterly cold Canadian winter, is a masterpiece. Though it is perhaps not as good as their impeccably earnest previous album, Heart, it still gets my vote as one of the best and most sublime albums of 2004.
REMAIN FAITHFULL
CD Review: Marianne Faithfull - Before the Poison
7/10
by Raph Tombasco
Actress/singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull has had a long and distinguished career. It began in 1964, when she was sought out to collaborate with the Rolling Stones for “As Tears Go By,” which, in turn, led to her infamous romance with Mick Jagger. She went on to star in films (Far From China, I’ll Never Forget What’s His Name) and write many influential and critically acclaimed albums throughout the next four decades. Although it is a bit heavy-handed and depressing at times, her latest solo release, Before the Poison, is a not only a culmination of her previous work, but it is also a bold step forward for Faithfull, who remains one of today’s most unique female songwriters.
Following up her 2002 release, Kissin’ Time, on which she worked with Beck and Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Faithfull’s new album remains true to her previous work in terms of the collaboration and experimentation involved. Flanked this time around by P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, she reveals an appealing rough edge in Before the Poison, even on the softer, more depressing songs. And even though things slow down considerably in the middle section, repeated listening offers a full appreciation of these tender and melodic moments.
The album begins on a strong note with “The Mystery of Love.” Even though the song has a generic soft rock feel to it, the second half makes up for it as the rolling beat builds to a crescendo of acoustic and electric guitar. These elements paired with Faithfull’s signature husky vocals and blaring piano chords make for a powerful introduction to the piece as a whole. The following track, “My Friends Have,” continues in a similar vein and has an overall harsher sound through Harvey’s use of a slightly distorted blues guitar and vocal harmonies that seem to be in discord.
Unfortunately, the creativity in sound production is nearly lost as Before the Poison progresses through the soft piano ballad, “Crazy Love,” and the ultra-annoying refrain of “Last Song”. But these are only mild detractors. Even though the songs are weak by themselves, they flow well with the rest of the album and provide the perfect foundation for the hard-hitting climax, “Desperanto,” a powerhouse rock jam that experiments with Faithfull’s baritone vocal work and an upbeat ‘70s groove. The resolution comes with “City of Quartz,” a soft lullaby that brings the album full circle and straightens out all the rough edges.
Listening to Marianne Faithfull’s Before the Poison can prove to be tedious because it moves so slowly and doesn’t offer many catchy tunes. Her decision to stick with her raspy, baritone vocals over the smooth soprano vocals she became famous for in the ‘60s is as annoying as it is inspired. Once the vocal harmonies on many of the tracks partially reveal the full range of her singing voice, the listener immediately craves more. This is a subtle and altogether skillful move by Faithfull. She uses her four decades of songwriting experience and musical collaboration to their full extent, and manages to push the image of the female artist beyond anything previously attained by her peers, especially her obvious clone, Stevie Nicks. Before the Poison is a good album, but it is nothing in comparison to her previous work, especially her 1979 breakthrough, Broken English, which offered more range instrumentally.
DEAD WRONG
CD Review: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart
2/10
by Michael Torsell
For artists to truly set themselves apart, they must posses some degree of ambition. Without the desire to break boundaries and challenge one’s audience, a group can never be remembered. However, within ambition lies a certain degree of danger, and there is a thin line between ambition and egotism. Each example of a challenging, groundbreaking record comes with countless examples of works that are bloated, boring and self important. For every Sergeant Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band there are hundreds of albums like Worlds Apart.
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead broke out in 1999 with their album Madonna, and three years later followed it up with the brilliant Source Tags and Codes. Therefore, the band’s third album, Worlds Apart was greeted with high expectations. Sadly, the band failed to meet them. In fact, Trail of Dead missed these lofty hopes by an immense degree.
Worlds Apart fails because the band went too far in trying to make an epic record. Where Source Tags and Codes seemed effortless, this album comes off as overly forced and even bland. From the opening track, a choir singing with the backing music forming a gradual crescendo, Trail of Dead tries too hard in its grandiosity and just ends up sounding pompous. The songs come off as being campy without any sense of awareness as to how campy the album is, thus draining any element of fun that might be present.
While the instrumentation is listenable and certainly not annoying, it is also uninteresting and bland. A good guitar hook certainly is not necessary for a good song but Worlds Apart has nothing else to save each song either.
All of this would make this album merely average and uninspired if not for the quality earning Trail of Dead the low review score above: the lead vocals. Lead singer Conrad Keely never detracted from the excellence in the previous two albums; however, the mixing had drowned out the vocals in a sea of guitars reducing it to a scream heard above the din of instrumentation. For Worlds Apart, Trail of Dead decided to mix Keely’s voice to forefront; a move that greatly detracts from the record’s quality. Keely’s vocals are nasally and painfully whiny, a scream replaced by a whimper. The best track on the album, “Caterwaul” is the one track where the vocals and the intonation of Keely’s voice are reminiscent of previous albums. It is only during that one track, right in the middle of the album that Trail of Dead shines. Had the Texas group kept to their older style, this album might have been saved.
It is always good when a band tries to push their own limits and grow as artists. One cannot expect a band to keep the same sound throughout their career. A group sets itself apart when it grows over the years. However, sometimes groups fall flat on their face in trying to evolve and the result is painful for newcomers and fans alike. Worlds Apart is a prime example of a band falling on their faces. And You Know Us by the Trail of Dead built a reputation based on solid cathartic rock, but their latest effort fails miserably and only delivers an effort that is forced and boring.
21ST CENTURY SHOEGAZE
CD Review:
The Frames - Burn The Maps
8/10
by Sean Harrigan
It takes a certain timeliness of discovery to find an album you want to live with. All the stars have to be aligned before you’re ready to commit, before you want it in your house, you want it in your car, you want it in your head. Fifteen years into their careers, The Frames are finally poised to do just that and wander into the melodic haze of rainy day listeners’ lives.
Burn The Maps is a candle lit headphone album. It is pensive, well planned, and takes its time getting to the point. There is nothing immediate about The Frames’ style, and the tracks feel twice as long as they are, but for this very reason the payoff is rewarding.
Each song starts slow and grows into epic outbursts. Not so much Built To Spill as perhaps Broken Social Scene-type blow-ups, they smoothly adjust the ear to the incoming barrage. Think the last two minutes of Weezer’s “Only In Dreams” with layered tracks of guitars and crescendo orchestra hits.
This album sounds extremely fresh for a band whose contemporaries include Bush and The Verve. Each song is an earnest attempt at cohesive multi-track studio noodling. The true classic on Burn The Maps is “Keepsake,” with its bellowing distortion tamed only by breezy guitars. It’s a seven-minute track of what you wish Godspeed You Black Emperor! could fully realize.
The few points that swell without proper release actually help pace the track list. The leading number, “Happy,” sounds like The Doves covering a Corrs song, but after that they get on their way, and the following song, appropriately titled “Finally”, is an admirable choice for a single. This is an all-around solid album and like a well-worn author there is nary a vain chord struck. Together these tracks have a consuming feel of a proudly crowned victory.
FROM ‘FOOTLOOSE’ TO PEDOPHILE
Movie Review: The Woodsman
8/10
by Evan Smith
A long time ago a young boy won the hearts of Americans with his infamous Animal House role as a pretentious fraternity pledge named Chip Diller. That young boy was Kevin Bacon, and as the Sigmas spanked his bottom during initiation and he implored “Thank you Sir! May I have another?” movie-goers across the nation returned an answer, asking “Thank you Kevin, can we have another?”
Coming off a sensational performance in 2003’s Oscar-nominated Mystic River, Kevin has revamped his often besmirched name with another outstanding performance in his new film The Woodsman.
Directed by new-comer Nicole Kassell and based on a play by Steven Fetcher, The Woodsman is a film about a pedophile named Walter (Bacon) who has just been released back into the world after 12 years of incarceration for molesting young girls. Walter tries to construct a normal life, getting an apartment and a job at a lumber yard, but his friends and family have excommunicated him and Walter has not yet completely shaken his vile urges. As badly as he wants to repress his sickness and as hard as he tries to become normal, he is in constant self-conflict with his loathsome cravings. Helping him along the way is Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a fine role as a feisty lumber yard employee that sees something good in Walter and decides to stick by his side even after he has revealed his shocking secret to her. Throughout the film, Walter is hounded by rapper Mos Def, who plays a cop keeping tabs on the convicted pedophile. As Mos
Def’s music stands out amongst a crowd of generic rappers, his acting follows suit, leaving fellow rappers-turned-actors DMX and Ja Rule in the dust with a quite compelling performance.
The story behind The Woodsman had room for improvement in that it found a few too many easy coincidences that ended up tying the plot together nicely, but there is a raw power to this film that mightily overshadows the convenient plot bridges.
This power is conveyed in its purest form during the climatic scene in which Bacon propositions a little girl to sit on his lap in a park. This part of the film renders its viewers completely motionless, as all the tension within the movie boils to a head. Sexual impulse and internal conflict are put into question within this scene in such a way that makes its viewers totally uncomfortable, yet deeply invested. Bacon’s performance of Walter is ultimately human, asking the audience to look at this man, and not to pity him, but to see him as something more than just a mere monster.
The Woodsman is certainly not a film for the faint of heart. It is a disturbing, painful film that begs the audience to try and understand the ceaseless misery and self-loathing of a pedophile. Bacon delivers possibly the best performance of his career, and while he probably won’t get nominated for an Oscar, he should be. The rest of the cast chips in nicely, and despite a few rather liberal reaches, the plot is interesting and will keep your attention. Unfortunately, The Woodsman is not in heavy rotation at area theaters, but it is definitely worth your time to seek it out.
PROMISING NOISES
CD Review: Eisley - Room Noises
7/10
by Bobby Ellis
When you’re older, looking back at your youth can be a nostalgic, yet slightly embarrassing experience. The events of your past have a naïve charm to them, but also a disturbing quality that may cause you to pause and think: “Oh, how I’ve grown since then.” But with maturity comes the passing of youthful and adventurous spirit. Curiosity is quelled by a colder reality of hours spent studying and appeasing parents, employers, etc. Lucky for all of us, the members of the band Eisley can remember a time before deadlines and overdone drama, partly due to the fact that for most of them, that time was only a year or two ago.
Much has been made of the very young ages of the members of Eisley, but it deserves to be noted again. The band is comprised of four siblings (three sisters and a brother) and their best friend, with ages ranging from 16 to 23. It is especially relevant to note this regarding their debut full length album, Room Noises, because a good portion of the songs on the album were written well before it was recorded, back when co-songwriter and keyboardist Stacy Dupree was only about 12 years old.
As you might expect and similar to those nostalgic teenage memories, Room Noises is a slightly awkward and unsure first step for a band full of great promise, and with a lot of time ahead of them. The album begins with a song called “Memories.” What’s instantly noticeable, aside from the naturally melodic and catchy music itself, is the incredible vocal talent of sisters Stacy and Sherri Dupree. Their voices bounce and tangle in harmony, floating alongside dreamy keys and the jangling guitar of their older sister Chauntelle.
Though they’ve been criticized in the past for putting out, as Rolling Stone put it, “unicorn barbie” rock, Eisley is a band that is much better than the sum of their bad teen-rock clichés. Songs such as “Golly Sandra” and “My Lovely” show the band branching out into more straightforward pop territory, while still keeping the same beautiful and dreamy tone that their past songs have become known for. On “Just Like We Do,” their maturity is even more apparent, balancing genuine questions of commitment against fragile harmonies and fingerpicked guitars.
The album is full of many high points. As a whole though, it feels a bit too compact and controlled. With this being their debut album on a major label, it is not surprising that Eisley doesn’t stray from pop conventions, but it feels like they went too out of their way to not take any chances. Also, many of the songs suffer from an over-reliance on lyrics and themes that are at times a bit too sugary sweet. It takes a certain kind of fan to not admit that lyrics like “this place is so lovely, the kind which makes me very happy,” aren’t just a bit over the top.
Overall, Room Noises reflects the new direction for Eisley: a young band trying to bridge the gap between mainstream pop and their indie rock influences, while holding strong to their small-town sensibilities. The album is full of nearly perfect pop songs which, while they don’t take many chances, never falter in their task of being infectiously catchy and beautifully constructed. Eisley has put together a collection of songs that reflect on their recent past, but more importantly look ahead to a promising future which, if full of albums like Room Noises, will be something for everyone to look forward to.
FORGOTTEN MUSICIANS AT
CAFE ALLEGRO
Review: Open Mic Night at
Cafe Allegro
by Michael Dedek
Since open-mic night is a blind grab bag of musical performance, I was anxious that my trip to Café Allegro’s Tuesday Open Mic Night might be a novice assault on my tender ears. However, the night’s soft acoustic tunes made truce with my outer ear’s pinna and paraded onto my tympanic membrane to produce the most melodious sensations. This open mic, like so many others, offered a myriad of acoustic performers, half of whom were graying baby boomers who carried with them the sentiments and ideas of their time, especially including those of the Vietnam War and shell shock.
As a young generation, we are drawn towards visceral types of music, the types of music that evoke reactions from our bodies either in the form of dancing and moshing, or in organ wrenching sex. This was not the type of music generated at Café Allegro. Tim Baldwin played tunes that he has probably been performing since the late ‘60s, and other performers strummed out songs that they wrote about the same time. For me, this was a refreshing change from the screeching hard rock riffs and dully pounding rap beats that I am battered with daily.
Tim Baldwin and his acoustic comrades represent the independent musicians of past time. They are the musicians that fame passed by, probably because of technical flaws in their instrumentalism, yet they perform energetically and poetically; when they sing of failure and unfulfilled expectations, I believe they are sincere. Though Café Allegro’s dessert was sweet and espresso strong, these baby boomers were the highlight of the evening. The younger performers demonstrated promise, but these older musicians were the real show.
I listened to Café Allegro’s elder musicians in their late 50s and 60s perform songs that they had written about Vietnam and the fears of still being inches from the grip of the communist enemy and about the hopelessness of poverty and loneliness. They gripped the tarnished wood of their guitars’ necks and slid their fingers on the greasy surface of the rusty strings, simultaneously dropping calloused and dry hands on the supple nickel and bronze. Enwrapped in ostensible misfortune and swaying and jerking their bodies to the rhythm of song, these men played like a Bob Dylan who didn’t get famous and go on to appear in Victoria Secret commercials and who didn’t hire a superb band to help in old age. These musicians were smooth and their voices were rough, and the meaning was in their lyrics and character, not in the notes.
Café Allegro (1374 Hertel Avenue) attracts these musicians as regulars in the open mic retinue, and they are worth listening to, as the elder of some ancient American Indian tribe must have been for his wisdom and insight. Also, the café welcomes new performers to sign up to play starting at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday nights. So if you’ve been writing a new and meaningful ditty, I encourage you to expose your music and soul to public ridicule and play.
