AURAL PLEASURE
Album Review: Aloha - Some Echoes
9/10
by Daniele Hauptman
Aloha’s new album is excellent from start to finish. On Some Echoes they truly demonstrate their ability to put together strong, innovative lyrics, heartfelt vocals, and driving rhythms. The album is Aloha’s second album since the addition of percussionist T.J. Lipple to the lineup, which also includes Tony Cavallario on vocals and guitars, Matthew Gengler on bass, and Cale Parks on drums and piano.
Some Echoes is a positively great album, weaving together incredible lyrical imagery, painfully soulful vocals, uplifting strings, keyboards, and impressively strong rhythms. The compilation is also appropriately titled, as the entire album has an amazingly mellow yet wonderfully rhythmic sound.
The album starts out strong with the melancholy “Brace Your Face,” a modern lament about the personal tragedy and confusion of lost love. Lead vocalist Cavallario sings in a mournful falsetto, “Love letters and cell phones/ Connect you to no one/ A message for no one/ Scroll through the old ones.” I especially love this track’s marimba section (an instrument that is kind of like a vibraphone, but different and woodier sounding). It adds depth to the lush vocals and blends well with the other rhythms and melodious instrumentals.
Aloha continues with the much more rough “Big Morning,” a dark but disarmingly short track that totally blue-balled my ears. In this song, Aloha questions whether we should more fully examine the way we live our lives, constantly talking and working, keeping secrets, and changing moods based on weather patterns. Cavallario sings, “Should we reconsider/ Working till the day is new?/ Should the sun dictate your mood?” This one will make you want to hit the repeat button more than once.
The next track, “Your Eyes,” is full of hopeful and assertive lyrics, pleading to the audience for communication and understanding. Throughout the song, Cavallario begs the listener, “Align your eyes with mine.” He reasons with the listener to forget their preoccupations and secrets and to honestly relate to him. And why should we refuse? Why, instead, would we shut ourselves off from the world or create walls to discourage open interaction? As Cavallario sings, “You’ve got nowhere to go/ You’ve got nothing to be but alone.” Right on, dudes. Connect while you still can, cause why the hell not?
“Weekend” is one of my favorite tracks on the album, about a joyful lovers’ reunion and the questionable expectations that get tangled in with the hopes and facts of relationships. Cavallario croons, “I could not wait to see her/ I could not pass the time/ Tried not to get my hopes up/ Tried not to call it anything.” I could not even imagine how they could word this sentiment more perfectly. The guitars and keyboards are upbeat and bouncy, wonderfully conveying a sense of jubilant anticipation and carefree abandonment.
If you haven’t heard this album, I highly recommend immediately searching for the nearest supposedly indie-looking kid and demanding to borrow their iPod. And if Some Echoes is not on their album list, I advise that you shake your head with possibly feigned disgust, and repeat.
RUBIES ARE FOREVER
Album Review - Destroyer - Destroyer’s Rubies
8/10
by Michael Torsell
Dan Bejar, responsible for a handful of songs on each New Pornographers album, has been recording under the name Destroyer since 1996. Bejar’s solo work is considerably different from the New Pornographers, encompassing a different tone and style. Bejar’s latest, Destroyer’s Rubies, is considerably less energetic than the latest New Pornographers album; where Twin Cinema instantly yields its rewards onto the listener, Rubies unfolds slowly and smoothly while remaining equally rewarding and enjoyable.
Rubies’ theatricality is evident from the opening track and encompasses the stylistic motif heard throughout the album. Bejar is an excellent lyricist and his wit and wordplay is evident in each track. The album is one of the most intelligently written albums released in a long time, each song consisting of a plethora of clever turns of phrases and quasi-psychedelic imagery. Bejar’s hyper-literate leanings show through on every track.
Behind the intelligent lyricism lies an equally lush instrumentation. At times evoking Bob Dylan and at others evoking early David Bowie, the music is theatrical and multi-layered. The songs are longer, with the shortest tracks clocking in around four and a half minutes, but with constant time and melody changes. The album opens incredibly strong with “Rubies,” a nine-minute song with an incredibly catchy guitar riff running through the entire thing. However, the album tapers off considerably towards the end, and the last three tracks are nowhere near as strong as the first three. Despite this, Rubies remains a great pop record.
Dan Bejar’s solo work is significantly more complex and difficult than his work with the New Pornographers. Yet, for those who give it a chance, Rubies is an excellent album that is just as strong as anything the New Pornographers have done. With a bombastic style and verbal dexterity not found in anything else out there, Destroyer is able to pull off what it attempts. Wistful and lush, the album’s warmth is evident. Dan Bejar’s rare lyricism and story telling ability is complemented by the full instrumentation. Unique and inventive, Rubies is one of the best albums to come out during the first quarter of the year.
STONE STILL HOT, TALENTLESS
Movie Review - Basic Instinct 2
1/10
by Justin Touretz
All Basic Instinct 2 (BI2) needed to do in order to capitalize off the success of its 1992 original was to provide anything closely resembling an intriguing storyline, partially believable acting, and, of course, a medley of sex scenes. What it winds up with is an hour and 45 minutes of an utterly boring, faux mind-fuck, dud of a movie. Oh, and did I forget to mention that despite all the hype, the sex scenes don’t make a blip on the boner radar?
You’ve got to give it to Sharon Stone; she got in killer shape (no pun intended) for the part and manages to look smoking hot as she replays Catharine Tramell, novelist with a risk addiction who gets off—quite literally—on danger. But here’s the thing, Stone was born in 1958—yeah, that’s right—she’s 48! Now, that clearly earns her the award for MILF of the Year. The only reason this movie gets a 1/10 is that Stone is still hot despite clearly being able to have birthed me. But, where her part in Basic Instinct vaulted her career, her crude performance here may very well kill it.
The plot goes as such: Tramell winds up in London and the movie opens with her getting finger “massaged” by a stud British soccer player as she speeds their way down a highway at over 100 miles per hour, and at the point of climax, she crashes the car off a bridge killing said soccer player. Once in police custody, the fellas at Scotland Yard assign Dr. Michael Glass (Morrissey—yes, that Morrissey) to give her an in-depth psychoanalysis, and as a shocker to no one, he gets a hard-on for her. As this yawner progresses, you’ll find yourself hoping upon all hope that Michael Douglas will stumble onto set and kick the constantly tired-looking Morrissey off camera, but to no avail. Not only is it weird enough to see the self-loathing crooner get some ass (getting a shudder-worthy view of his backside as the coup de grace) but the chemistry between him and Stone is nonexistent. As they drag on the inevitable with a tired game of cat and mouse where Stone aims to break the world record for anyone saying “cum” in under a two-hour period, you’ll find yourself hoping the theater you are currently sitting in burns down just to end this slop.
Director Michael Caton-Jones butchers the one thing which might have been its saving grace: the sex scenes. Lasting under two minutes throughout the entire movie, the high sexual tension leads to an anticlimax that is dull, poorly lit, and ultimately boring. And these scenes were the best-filmed sections of this horribly shot film.
BI2’s tagline reads, “Everything interesting begins in the mind.” Well, except for whoever thought of this not-even-download-worthy sequel.
SOUTHERN COMFORT
Movie Review - ATL
9/10
by Susy Kim
ATL is a story about two brothers and their friends down in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. It features some famous names such as Tip “T.I.” Harris, Big Boi, Bone Crusher, and Jazze Pha. This movie is different from other movies that star rappers because for once, it is actually not based on that typical person’s life story. T.I., who is the main star in ATL plays Rashad Swann, a hard-working teenager ready to graduate high school. In the movie, Rashad had lost both of his parents to a car accident which left him and his younger brother Anton, played by Evan Ross (Diana Ross’ son), to live with their Uncle George. All three of them struggle to make ends meet, working as janitors to support themselves. Life is especially difficult for the two brothers as they face the many challenges of growing up.
ATL mainly takes place in a skating rink called Cascades, the hot chill spot. Rashad and his three best friends—Esquire, Teddy, and Brooklyn—go there every Sunday to hang out and practice for the skating competition. There, Rashad meets his love interest, New New, who turns out to be someone very different than he originally thinks she is. The story climaxes when Anton gets sucked into the drug world, running into trouble when he is robbed of all his drugs and money. Rashad rushes to his brother’s rescue and tries to protect him from Marcus, the drug lord. Nevertheless, Rashad cannot always protect his little brother.
The best aspect of ATL was that it portrays urban life relatively well compared to other “hood” flicks. Nothing was out of the ordinary; many of the events that take place in the movie are things that most teens go through—no matter where they come from. The movie is also great in that it depicts the better side of growing up poor in Atlanta. Unlike many other “hood” movies, ATL tells the story of a young man who tries to get out of the hood by doing legit work rather than selling drugs. Most of the other characters also struggle to reach their goals genuinely—not taking the “easy” way out.
T.I.’s performance in ATL is surprisingly fantastic. Maybe it’s the character that he plays, but he really makes a name for himself as an actor in this film, sending out a positive message to many through his character Rashad. ATL is a good film for young teens in trouble, struggling with peer pressure, or bombarded by the media because it shows them that there is a better life out there if they work to achieve it. It is definitely worth paying for the movie simply because it is nothing like 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Trying. In addition, there are plenty of hot women who will grab your full attention in ATL.
BLAZING HOT FIRE
Album Review: Pelican - The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
8/10
by Peter Scheck
In our age of iTunes and digital music, hearing what you want is cheap. Everyone is a collector, with the only restriction being the amount of space on a hard drive. Who wants to spend money on something they can get for free, especially if it’s not that good? Everywhere, CDs are going the way of the dinosaurs. The way of the vinyl.
Pelican is the exception to the rule, the guilt in the back of my mind, the reason that we still buy albums just to dissect their insides.
Their album, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, is certainly something to take apart and something to enjoy once you reassemble it. Their sound is specific, though most of the album’s tracks wear their influences on their sleeve. The riff in “March into the Sea” may as well be a sample from Mastodon’s Remissions, for example, but the song dies down to drones and becomes quiet before completely changing melodies. This becomes the band’s greatest strength and its chief mistake: in the course of being transient and distant, creating a soundscape which is both completely real and captivating through precise musicianship, the band frequently ends up like your neighbor getting high and watching PBS. “Yeah, I know what’s going on now, but I have no idea what happened in the beginning of the show or what got me here.” Pelican sometimes makes you feel lost in the woods.
The acoustic “Track 4” exemplifies that feeling, but in a different manner. It is at once haunting and bravely one of the most consistent tracks on the album. It takes a complicated melody and guitar line and develops it, sometimes straying from the original path, but always returning from the variation. The band’s own fear of losing the audience is specifically apparent in this song, though, even at under five minutes long. They insert segues of static to heighten the climax of an unnecessary part of the song. Their idea of stereotypical rise and fall detracts from what becomes, though casual at times, a natural progression.
With that said, they are the band with the most typical Chicago name, yet their music exemplifies and glorifies the names of all the other bands that sound like them. Each track on the album sounds like it should be titled “Explosions in the Sky” or “Godspeed You.” “Aurora Borealis” is one of those songs, building up slow from a simple guitar line to include the rest of the band in an exploration of what they can do to fuck it up. They explore, going down and going up and changing textures, but what they end up with is the original melody, strong and true. I’d lie if I said it didn’t sound like a moment of solidarity.
The album’s openers, “Last Day of Winter” and “Autumn into Summer” are so aptly titled, their melodies are so clear and expressive of their subject. They still have that stoner sense of terrible transition, but these songs are the type of sound full orchestras strive for in the scoring of films. The melody at the four-minute mark is, simply put, one of the most beautiful chords I’ve ever heard. These are the tracks that truly feel like the chapters of a book, laid out and introductory to the sound and meaning of a certain language of music that you need to feel to understand.
They make a college writer stop and ask, God, is that too much?
FLAMING ACID-HEADS
Album Review: The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
8/10
by Christopher Drellow
The Flaming Lips have their heads in the past, their thumbs in the future, and drugs on their tongues. The production on their music is no less than what you’d expect from a Warner Bros album—compressed and tight. And yet their sound stinks of the ‘70s with guitars becoming flange drones and wa pedal waves peppering songs like kids who listen to too much funk or jazz.
And yet, they’ve really accomplished something with At War With the Mystics, an album equally influenced by politics and drugs. Sure, the combination is nothing new and not too difficult to achieve. In fact, these days, it seems that a song hinting at childish, violent, greedy, Texan thieves is about as close you’re going to come to “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “Get Up, Stand Up.”
The Lips instead choose to approach this issue with lyrics that make you almost happy to hate politics. They make light of leaders they claim in the liner notes to have gone insane. There’s nothing depressing about the line, “Every time you state your case/ the more I’d like to punch your face in.” I mean, not the way they sing it at least.
The songs here are also too fun to be epic. But no listener would deny that a more lax producer would have let the tapes roll a little longer and these tracks most certainly would border on being progressive, epic rock.
Then again, there are tracks like “Mr. Ambulance Driver,” with a droning siren sound that will either hook you or cause you to stab your speakers. They’re a little too poppy, catchy, and easy to really satisfy a mind in the cosmos, a kid tripping. That’s no criticism of the album; it’s just a warning.
The concept of the album is of slipping psychedelic drugs to world leaders, maybe at Camp David, a bit of ecstasy and a bit of LSD, and the idea that maybe instead of chilling our leaders out, it would make them even more violent. Or that maybe this has already happened and that’s why certain members of the White House are more or less bat-shit crazy.
In a way, this album is slipping drugs to the mainstream, playing the same liberating and equally maddening prank on the world. There’s something melting in the guitars, in the vocals, in the drums. These guys definitely knew what drugs to feed their instruments, and they’re letting you sample the wares.
There’s something in the sound that’s making the walls bend and the room spin. And yet, Goddamn if this music isn’t catchy, almost to a fault. Don’t expect not to be humming the first track of the album for a good 24 to 36 hours until you can plug back in and hear it again.
There’s no recommendable way to approach this album, but it’s certainly worth a few listens. The sound is nothing new, a bit of the old through the window of the new. There are influences that peak through the songs like shells in the sand. You can see them, and you know they’re there, but they don’t feel like imitation. Even if you don’t find the vibe (and the word here most certainly is vibe) euphonious on the first listen, it will probably drip down your spine until you need it again.
THE WORLD SERIES OF BASEBALL GAMES
Video Game Reviews: MLB2k6 v. MLB ‘06: The Show
by Jason Perkins
Since the exclusive rights to the Major League Baseball Players Association were acquired by 2kSports, this year fans only have two options to get their round ball fix. The popular MVP series (produced by Electronic Arts), which had become the industry standard by which all others were measured, has been reduced to an NCAA—college baseball for those of you not in the know—version. As a small protest for not including the University at Buffalo in that game, it will be omitted from this comparison. The contenders we are left with are (confusingly) titled MLB ’06: The Show and MLB2k6.
The biggest difference between the two is not technical. They have both exhibited fine attention to detail: the player models are crisp and actually resemble their real life counterparts; the fielding, throwing and hitting animations are all smooth without exception; each and every stadium has been faithfully recreated.
Where the dichotomy forms is announcing. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan provide what is probably the best commentary around today. Unfortunately for those who bought MLB2k6, they seem to have run out of gas. Sure, they have a lot to say and the lines are as applicable as they can be without live announcers, but there is no feeling. No emotion. I’m reminded of last year’s MVP game, where in any given game, you can expect to hear the phrase “Sit down, meat” on at least 15 occasions.
MLB ‘06: The Show, on the other hand, features a three-man booth. Not only is three inherently better than two, but Matt Vasgersian, Dave Campbell, and Rex Hudler deliver the over 10,000 lines of dialogue with meaning and a conversational tone that makes the game seem less like a game and more like a TV or radio broadcast.
A recent recreation of the 1986 World Series Game Six using Nintendo’s RBI Baseball (1988), with the original broadcast by Vin Scully, illustrates just how critical this is. Even with 8-bit graphics, you can still get the feeling that you’re part of the game, due to the superb announcing. If Vin Scully can get me excited enough to watch a game that happened 20 years ago, with nothing but the NES’s prehistoric visuals to accompany him, think what it can do for today’s video games. Hopefully (now that we’re reaching a point of photorealism in games) this aspect won’t be so overlooked and a new trend of passionate, varied, and lifelike voices and sounds will stick.
Based solely on the merit of its announcing, MLB ’06: The Show should be awarded the title of best baseball game this year.
SEPTEMBER 11 REEXAMINED
DVD Review: Loose Change 2nd Edition
10/10
by Audrey Odhner
In May of 2002, (now 22-year-old) Dylan Avery began writing a fictional story entitled Loose Change—the premise intended to be an imaginative answer to the question, “What if the events of September 11, 2001 were not the result of foreign terrorism at all, but a U.S. government-planned and executed attack?” Gradually, over two years of researching, Avery realized that the subject matter he began investigating may not have been so far-fetched. What started as the scaffolding for fictional film had evolved into a startling and provocative documentary.
The result, Loose Change 2nd Edition, presents a concise rundown of the events of September 11, scrupulously reexamined. With the input of discerning scientific experts and eyewitness accounts, Loose Change presents several pieces of information carefully gathered from documents, video footage, and the like—all available for public access—which seriously call into question the official explanations of the day’s chaotic events.
Without a lot of frills, Loose Change asks (and points towards answers to) many of the questions which have run through my mind before, but which seemed too obvious. How did a Boeing 747 fit through the perfectly circular hole showcased in photos of the smoking Pentagon? Why were there no pictures of the plane that supposedly crashed in Pennsylvania? Where were all of the bodies?
This film does not pretend to have answers to such questions. I was initially leery of another conspiracy theory, especially one glorified with 90 minutes of film. However, it soon becomes apparent that the documentary’s aim is not push for some right or left winged—or even anarchist—agenda, but rather, to make people aware of many glaring incongruities in what was so easily accepted by the American people as sufficient explanation during such an uncertain and emotion-wrought time.
A large part of what makes this film and the information it presents so provocative is its simple and straightforward presentation. Lack of fancy graphics and flashy editing techniques is advantageous to a storyline dedicated to representing bare-bones facts and representation of easily accessible knowledge about 9/11; its ideas are enthralling enough. An overall sense of straightforwardness is much to the film’s credit, and a large part of why I feel comfortable making a strong recommendation for it.
Loose Change 2nd Edition is a must-see for all Americans—especially those who feel unsatisfied with the readily available explanations for the events of September 11, 2001. I encourage all to view it with the same disclaimer the filmmakers themselves urge—watch it, scrutinize it, look these things up for yourself, come to your own conclusions. All parts of this film are available for free viewing on the Internet at loosechange911.com.
