Animal Force
Siouxsie - Mantaray
9/10
by James Ghazarian
Eighties icon Siouxsie is best known for her work with her first band Siouxsie & the Banshees, who played a part in pioneering the post-punk movement. The natural progression for a successful female lead singer is to wear the pants of her own solo career soon after her band experiences success—Siouxsie, however, has waited more than 20 years to make her solo debut. Mantaray is an amazing accomplishment. It manages to incorporate a wide variety of musical genres ranging from industrial and electronica to alternative rock and punk. The album blends these together to create a fluid and visceral listening experience where each song flows into the next.
The opening track and first single “Into a Swan” is a thundering piece of glam-rock. It is easily the most accessible song on the album. She sounds like a more full-voiced Karen O, or a more mature Shirley Manson. The conga drums and slamming guitars featured on the song drive it, but it is Siouxsie’s voice that gives the song its energy. The raw emotion she conveys through her singing is what makes this the best track of the album.
Siouxsie sounds a lot like electro-dance singer Alison Goldfrapp (which isn’t surprising considering Goldfrapp producer Charlie Jones worked on this track) in “About To Happen”— a song that is a hybrid of electronica and pop. The track features sprawling keyboards that make it dancey and kinetic. The bluesy “Here Comes That Day” sounds like an update of “I Put a Spell on You,” but employs an eerie melody that permeates the song. Its jazz influences and brassy sound make this an obvious choice for the album’s second hit.
Siouxsie then shifts gears with the ballad “If It Doesn’t Kill You,” which conveys the same strong emotions presented in previous tracks and is dedicated to a former lover. Instead of coming across as bitter, Siouxsie plays on vulnerability. The album’s closing track “Heaven and Alchemy” is backed by piano and is a powerful and striking way to close the album. Here she reminds the listener of Björk, showcasing her wide vocal range, singing, “It’s hard to face this deception / This human frailty.”
It’s strange that Siouxsie ends up sounding like so many artists whose careers she no doubt inspired, but the fact that she is able to reinvent her sound and master this new style is a testament to her timeless talent as a vocalist. Mantaray is so fluid, each song has the potential to be a single. Siouxsie is able to control her voice and perform well in all the genres she explores on this album. Mantaray is a great achievement and an experience that shouldn’t be missed.
The Fight is Finished
Halo 3
8.5/10
by Jason Polansky
Halo 3 is one of the most ambitious games to be released this year. Right off the bat, you will dive head first into the campaign mode that left you hanging at the end of Halo 2. You will notice the top-notch production values as you watch Master Chief crash to Earth like a meteor, while Cortana narrates—all with a fantastic score to set the mood perfectly. Halo 3 has a very clean look and it works off the foundation of the ever-capable Halo 2 engine. What you get as a result is a game that won’t necessarily blow you away graphically like Gears of War did last year, but it still manages to impress with stunning lighting effects and subtle details. The problem from the production standpoint is that some things look like they have been ported over from Halo 2 without change. Though Master Chief, the Brutes, and the Elites all look great, the rest of the character models just don’t hold up.
I should add that the enemy AI, artificial intelligence, is fantastic, as it always has been, taking cover and using realistic tactics to constantly outwit you. Your computer-controlled teammates, however, are absolutely brain-dead and supply no support at all. If you find yourself looking for some help, your best bet is getting three friends together and running through the campaign while taking advantage of the new online and offline four-player co-op modes. The biggest problem with the campaign, and what brings the score down the most, is the pacing and some odd level design choices on Bungie’s (Halo’s producer) behalf. Backtracking, now a staple of the formula, returns with the second level and feels more like busy work than true progression.
What will keep bringing you back, however, and the ultimate reason you should buy the game, is the multiplayer mode. With new weapons, vehicles, and the addition of deployable equipment, Halo 3 is the next logical step in the Halo franchise from a multiplayer standpoint. The deployable equipment really shines in multiplayer as it can change the game with items like the bubble shield and energy drainer. What’s also worth mentioning is the added balance that was severely missing from previously titles in the trilogy. No weapon is overpowered, and there are no “n00b combos” that will make you feel cheated (plasma pistol SMG anyone?). Other worthy additions such as the Forge, a mode that lets you edit the map on the fly, help Halo 3 raise the bar for what an online shooter should be.
Overall, Halo 3 does end up living up to its tremendous hype. You are left with a nearly flawless multiplayer experience, combined with a more than capable campaign mode which will take you well through, and probably beyond, this console generation. Now stop reading this and finish the damn fight!
Comedy in the Cubicles
The Office
9/10
by Roger Chao
Side-splitting laughs, painfully awkward moments, and a 5k run to prevent the onslaught of rabies…are just another day at the office. NBC’s The Office has returned for a highly anticipated fourth season, along with the same core of characters we’ve all marveled at. With pressure mounting for another successful season, and some critics claim the show has “jumped the shark,” but The Office’s hour-long premiere has unquestionably silenced all doubters.
Quite a few momentous events have occurred since we last visited Dunder-Mifflin. Ryan Howard, played by B.J. Novak, once the company’s lowly temporary worker, has been promoted to the corporate office. Though he is now officially higher up than Scranton branch boss Michael Scott, (Steve Carell), Ryan is still at the mercy of his former manager’s idiotic heckling. Michael’s ex-boss and current lover, Jan Levinson, played by Melora Hardin, has now moved in with him. It is obvious that Jan is the dominant one in the relationship, which makes Michael extremely uncomfortable. Only time will tell where this twisted affair will end up.
The biggest and perhaps the most pleasant news of the new season is the relationship status of Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beasley (Jenna Fischer). After three years of semi-flirting and agonizing, “will they or won’t they” tension, the two lovebirds finally begin dating. At first, the episode led fans to believe this would be yet another season of platonic interaction between the two, but that theory was shattered quickly when they were caught sneaking a quick kiss in Pam’s car. Fans everywhere must have gone to bed that night feeling a little bit more complete. This does pose a few questions, though—like, where is Jim’s ex, Karen (Rashida Jones)? Since that fateful day when Jim left her stranded in New York City, it has been implied that she is no longer a member of the Scranton branch. Still, the chances of her showing up to spoil this picture-perfect moment are extremely likely.
The beauty of The Office lies in the depth of each character. Every employee at Dunder-Mifflin has a unique quality, and each had their moment in the season premier. Michael Scott’s grating personality showed no sign of slowing down, even after he hit fellow co-worker Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) with his car just five minutes into the episode. From there, his attempt at gaining forgiveness only made for more comedic awkwardness. Viewers were able to get to know many of the supporting characters; whether it was finding out that fan favorite Creed (Creed Bratton) is a long-time cult affiliate, or that Andy (Ed Helms) has an intense fear of nipple-chafing, this first course proved to everyone that even after three seasons, there is still much to be learned about this little company in Pennsylvania.
The Office is by far one of the strongest comedies on TV right now. It has provided consistent entertainment season after season. Spend just one Thursday night with The Office and you’ll be left feeling satisfied… at least, that’s what she said.
Love, Sex, and Tragedy
Feast of Love
7.5/10
by Adam Silkworth
Feast of Love, based on the 2000 novel by Charles Baxter, explores the possibility of relationships within the lives of very different characters. With solid performances by Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine), the cast delivers performances worthy of mention.
The movie focuses on several couples living in a Portland, Oregon college community. Professor Harry Stevenson (Freeman) is on hiatus from teaching and keeps a sharp eye on the neighborhood, doling out advice and cracking open a bottle of wine every time someone falls in love. Bradley Smith (Kinnear), who runs the local coffee shop, is dumb-struck when his wife Kathryn (Selma Blair) leaves him for another woman. He then proceeds to fall for real estate agent Diana (Radha Mitchell) who can’t seem to cut the ties of her affair with a married man. Finally, there is Chloe (Alexa Davalos) and Oscar (Toby Hemingway), who meet after she shows up in the coffee shop looking for work.
Feast of Love is a journey, with romances developing as well as fading in the parallel lives of these individuals. It also contains some very alluring sex scenes—I counted at least five. Oscar and Chloe film a sex tape in addition to makin’ whoopee on the 50-yard line of the local stadium. Diana and the man with whom she has an affair participated in a few very provocative sex scenes and there is a shot of Selma Blair in her birthday suit lying in bed with her new ladylove.
There is not a cynical moment in this film. Each story that plays out is real in its character development and each personality is believably written into the script. Watching Feast of Love makes you believe in the lives of each of these forlorn lovers. I left feeling as though I had just spent 102 minutes listening to not-so-bad advice about relationships.
Viewing Feast of Love feels like you’re sitting in your own living room—that’s how comfortable it gets. Everyone who sees this film can relate to some part of it in one way or another. It explores the highs and lows of people’s tragedy; you can’t help but walk out of the theater feeling better than when you walked in.
Stop babies, Not Rabies
The Sarah Silverman Program
9/10
by Elina Vaysbeyn
Sarah Silverman, long-time comedian and self-satirizing Jewish American Princess, is a ball-busting riot. Her television show, The Sarah Silverman Program, strips down the layers of American society, revealing the poopy diaper of hypocrisy underneath. Her show, now in its long-awaited second season, is groundbreaking in its honesty. Silverman plays a narcissistic brat, fundamentally convinced that she is the center of the universe. Her two gay friends (Brian Posehn and Steve Agee) and younger sister (Laura Silverman) are merely moons orbiting her massively large, self-visualized persona.
Sarah is a personification of the Freudian “id.” She blurts out every absurd idea that materializes inside her head and plays the part of the constant extremist. Silverman is a beauty, with a dark, thick mane of hair, and distinctive Israelite features—in the show, however, Sarah’s feminine charms disappear behind her obnoxious presentation. Her television character is practically sociopathic in her inability to empathize with others.
Last season’s outrageous but disappointingly short string of episodes included Sarah’s psychedelic experience with cough syrup, her experimental lesbian phase, and an attempt to end poverty by inviting a homeless guy to live in her house. While Sarah wanted to help her new hobo friend, she was tactful enough to restrain herself (NOT!) from spoiling him or infringing on his right to be a street-person by generously throwing him a banana peel now and then and making him sleep in his cardboard box.
The first episode of the second season features Sarah accidentally falling in with a bunch of pro-life community activists. After being informed that “babies are being murdered” in her own neighborhood, she is lured to the group meetings with coffee and lemon bars, but fails to recognize the real cause. She gets right down to it, making signs (“You’ve come a long way, baby, now someone wants to shoot you in the head” was a standout) for the upcoming rally in front of the abortion clinic where her own sister, Laura, works as a nurse.
After Sarah realizes the group’s cause, she openly admits to having three abortions under her belt, and feels like the last one wasn’t her last one. Her advocate friends attempt to make her swear off abortion forever, to which Silverman, unmoved, declares, “I may like abortion, but at least I’m not a bore, son!” Once again, Sarah saves the day when she realizes that the group of religious fanatics planted a bomb in the clinic. The episode concludes with a roaringly funny scene in which her gay friends and their gay friends, dressed in their Dungeons & Dragons wizard clothes, prove to Sarah that they’ve got her back.
Sarah is the tactless, self-pronounced hero of every episode, eclipsing all note-worthy accomplishments of every other character. They all live in her shadow—and lucky for them. Silverman is ingenious and more direct than you could ever imagine.
Wait, Where’s the Drummer?
Genghis Tron @ Soundlab
October 3, 2007
8/10
by Stephen Boyd
There’s artsy, there’s avant-garde, and then there’s true innovation, doing something that no one else can (or thought to) do. Artsy bands often attempt to revamp unoriginal material to make it sound new, while true groundbreakers do something no one has ever seen, heard, or experienced before.
That said, it is safe to say that both Behold…the Arctopus and Genghis Tron are true innovators. Both have pushed the limits of the conventional band format. Behold…the Arctopus is a three-piece instrumental band comprised of a ridiculously talented drummer, a guitar player, and a 12-string bass player (12 strings! That’s three times the usual number!). Genghis Tron, also comprised of three members, has a singer, a guitar player, and an effects guy. You could call him the drummer, I guess, seeing as he controls the loops that function as drums for the band’s songs, but they have no real drum kit. Trippy.
Despite their set being plagued by audio difficulties, Behold…the Arctopus, was nothing short of impressive. Their songs are part speed metal, part tech metal, and part jazz. The pace of the songs was so incredibly fast that the three players often seemed to be out of sync with each other until the tempo shifted and they resumed a more unified sound. The 12-string bass was downright fascinating, and combined with the fact that the bassist’s primary style of playing was lightning-fast finger tapping, it made for an awe-inspiring set. The crowd grew as their set progressed, and people crowded around the stage to watch fingers fly.
Watching Genghis Tron was slightly less cool than listening to their recorded material, but not by much. The disparity between what comes out of the speakers and what the guys on stage are actually doing to produce it is one of the best elements of their show. The music is loud, pulsing, and intense, aided by all manner of blast beats and sound effects, but there is only one instrument (a guitar) actually being played. The synthesis of digitally created beats and the raw sound of the vocals and guitar make for a radically different approach to experimental metal.
They played “Chapels” from their most recent release, Dead Mountain Mouth, and also played a selection of new songs from their upcoming album on Relapse records including “Things Don’t Look Good” and “Board Up the House.” Some of the songs almost sounded like they could be R&B hits until the tempo morphed into a crazy blast beat reminiscent of the best grind bands. You have to hear it to believe it.
The two are “metal” bands, if you choose to characterize them as such, but their off-tempo and chaotic style differs so greatly from the typical bands lumped into the genre that it is almost unfair to use that term. “Grind” or “experimental” might also come close, but they’re not quite there. In a scene that exists largely underground, these two bands may be more obscure than most, but create music like no other bands I have ever heard.
THE IPOD GETS A FACELIFT
The 80 GB Apple iPod
9/10
by Patrick Dowd
Three months after unveiling the top-of-the-line iPhone, Apple has one-upped itself by releasing a fifth generation iPod. So what has really changed with the new iPod? Has it met its predecessors and technologically surpassed them? Luckily, I got a chance to play with an 80 GB model to try to answer these questions.
The change in appearance was the first thing I noticed. The iPod was lookin’ hot to trot with a new silver faceplate (the model is offered in black and silver), which will hopefully protect this thing from the eight million times you’re going to drop it.
Upon turning on the screen I found a much more appealing main menu than that of the older iPods. It has been revamped so the list menu is to the left half of the screen, while the right half shows random album art from your library— definitely more exciting and useful than just a big ol’ list. Now you can also use the “cover flow” function to browse through your albums, much like iTunes or Microsoft Zune. The album list has gotten a facelift as well, with the art showing up in a small thumbnail next to each album. Looks like that crystal clear LCD screen is going to get more use. Plus, searching for your favorite songs is just as easy with the return of the search function, which is a godsend. Sometimes you just want the iPod to do the dirty work for you. Another convenient improvement is the lengthened battery life (about 3.5 hours for video playback), helpful for those too lazy or busy to charge it constantly.
The new Apple iPod is worth the cost, even if you go for the pricier iPod Touch which looks surprisingly like the iPhone and has the ability to connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. It uses touch-screen technology, allowing you to dodge that stupid, spinning wheel. This one will run you a little more than the regular click-wheel at $299 for the eight GB and $399 for the 16 GB.
If you don’t need the Internet in the palm of your hand at all times, the old-fashioned, click-wheel iPod works just as well, with a flashier new look and more storage space, ranging from 80 GB to a whopping 160 GB (suitable for lots of storage). Another great thing about these new iPods is their unusually low starting price of $249 for the 80 GB and $349 for the 160 GB, while the prior generation’s cost started at $399 or $499 respectively. If you really want an iPod but don’t have that amount of cash to blow, Apple has released a new version of the Nano, as well, with a video-playing function. The sleeker and smaller device goes for a more reasonable $149 for the 4 GB and $199 for the 8 GB.
Certain problems with iPods are still prevalent and anticipated by users, including sound quality, and also their inevitable untimely demise exactly a year after purchase (to coincide with the next release?). Other than these minor setbacks, Apple has definitely hit the mark once more, with a new layout that is much more appealing to the eye.
A Checkered Performance by Yip Yip
Yip Yip at Soundlab
October 4, 2007
8/10
by Joe LiButti
The openers for Yip Yip at Soundlab last Thursday night included the Cowboys of Scotland and an unknown comedian. The first band was barely worth a mention because there was little substance behind their confused style. The Cowboys consisted of a guitarist, a so-called “singer,” and a dude on synths; their gimmick was pretty flimsy. Their front man spoke rather than sang along with the music and wore a cowboy hat, and one of the three even wore pants under his kilt—which still doesn’t explain their aesthetic decision to show samurai movie clips behind them.
The highlight of their act was when the bassist painted on a drawing of a cowboy on a shirt and gave it to an audience member, and then he continued to play with a brush strapped to his bass. If there was anything to be said for them, they made me laugh more than the comedian who went on before, but at least he was mercifully brief while the Cowboys dragged on and on.
Yip Yip stepped on stage dressed head to foot in matching checkered uniforms, playing on dual synth-setups boxed in by black and white checkerboards, and in front of a checkered screen. Both Yip Yip and their opener Cowboys of Scotland put a lot of emphasis on the performance aspect of the set. For Yip Yip, it was much more effective. With their intense electronic beats complemented by intermittent saxophone, cymbals, and gong, the bizarre get-ups lent an almost alien feel to their repertoire. Musically, they sounded like carnival calliope music on acid. Songs were often constructed of two contrasting tunes, which seamlessly alternated, usually growing in speed and intensity or becoming more distorted as they progressed. This effectively extended their offbeat motif into their music, blurring the line between artist and music.
Unfortunately, Yip Yip only played for about half an hour. That isn’t to say they wouldn’t have liked to play longer, but because they are a relatively new act (the majority of their output has been self-released, with a couple of these remixed and re-recorded for release on Strictly Amateur Films Records), they simply ran out of songs to play. While the crowd cheered for an unprecedented encore, an eager to please Yip Yip returned to stage to play their last song once more proclaiming, “but this time better since we just played it.” True to their word, they kicked the volume up a notch while one of the Yips performed his saxophone part from the crowd.
Despite their mediocre openers, Yip Yip put on a solid show hampered only by its brevity. Anyone with a hankerin’ for some eclectic electric would be well advised to catch them next time they’re around.
