Something is rotten in the city of Pawnee, Ind. and surprisingly, it’s not the snooty residents of the former Eagleton. NBC’s "Parks and Recreation" (2009 - present) returned on Jan. 13 with back-to-back episodes, kicking off its short final season with an unforeseen feud between the ever-ambitious ...
Harsh and unrelenting, an aggressive drum beat opens the first track on Viet Cong’s self-titled debut album. The song “Newspaper Spoons” sounds more like a battle cry than a welcome to the band’s music, yet its intensity does not allow the track to become cookie-cutter metal or pop-punk. Two minutes into the song, which clocks in at three minutes 21 seconds,layers of tinkling keyboard melodies come in and add an extra dimension to the piece. While the grinding gritty rock feel is established, so too is the assertion that the members of Viet Cong know exactly what they're doing. They are, in three minutes and twenty-one seconds, established as rebels in an already rebellious sub-genre of music.
When Guster formed in 1992, soon after its members met at Tufts Wilderness Orientation, the band did not even have a real rock drummer. Founded by Tufts alumni Adam Gardner (LA ’95), Ryan Miller (LA ’95) and Brain Rosenworcel (LA ’95), the group cultivated a unique style based around Rosenworcel’s motley drum kit of congas and cymbals. Although this sound has dissipated since the band fell into the mainstream spotlight with “Lost and Gone Forever” (1999), many of its popular albums continued to incorporate unconventional percussive and melodic elements. However, with the release of its previous album “Easy Wonderful” (2010) and now 2015's “Evermotion," Guster has shed its early raw shell.
Singing knights and silly humor are coming to a TV screen near you. ABC premiered its new comedy, "Galavant," a four-week long comedic musical series, on Jan. 4.The show features music by composer Alan Menken, who composed scores for numerous Disney films, including “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and “Aladdin” (1992)."Galavant" focuses on a typical heroic knight named Galavant (Joshua Sasse), a conventionally handsome, scruffy hero.Early in the first episode, the titular protagonist is spurned by his girlfriend Madalena (Mallory Jansen) in favor of the hilarious tyrant King Richard (Timothy Omundson), and so he must embark on a quest to regain his honor and his love.
“Club Meds” is a busy and chaotic blend of synth and noise that creates a joyride of musical exploration and adventure for listeners. With his fourth studio album, Dan Mangan is not afraid to smear together sounds of old and new, compiling pieces from synth samples and heavily melodic vocals. “Club Meds” is a wild, dizzying and fearless exploration into the new musical world, where the 21st century's popular diversity of sounds must rely on old school musicality to succeed -- and succeed “Club Meds” does.
For a movie that takes on a larger-than-life man in the midst one of the most triumphant acts of his career as its subject matter -- namely, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. -- “Selma” finds its greatest highlights in the quiet and subdued moments of its 127-minute run. With a critical eye and a hyper-awareness of mise-en-scene and characterization, director Ava DuVernay makes good use of her powerhouse cast -- which includes David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson and Cuba Gooding Jr. to name a few -- while making intense dialogue the focus of the picture. Rather than falling into the trap of excessive grandeur and over-the-top, triumphant cheesiness, DuVernay’s “Selma” more closely mimics “Milk” (2008) and “Lincoln” (2012) with its balance of quiet and chaos. It tackles historical subject matter through a narrow and carefully positioned lens.
If it were possible to write an article composed solely of excited squealing, this review would be a page of high-decibel happiness. "Marvel’s Agent Carter,” which premiered on ABC on Jan. 6, is the latest expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and gives viewers a taste of how refreshing a female-led superhero story can be. The seven-week series stars Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter, a character introduced as Steve Rogers’ love interest in “Captain America: The First Avenger”(2011). However, Atwell and her character have proved in “Agent Carter,” and in a 2013 Marvel “One Shot” short film of the same name, that Peggy Carter is no simple ingenue, but a hero in her own right.
Well, book-lovers, we’re nearing the end of our journey together. As finals season and winter break approach us, I thought I’d take the opportunity to recommend some excellent escapes, whether they be from the stress of studying or from quality family-time. Even if none of the following strikes ...
“I urge and challenge musicians and artists alike to push themselves to be a voice of the times that we live in.”Ahmir Khalib Thompson, aka Questlove, drummer for the Roots, posted the above sentiment last week to his Instagram account as part of a lengthy caption underneath a photo of a person's ...
Finals period is quickly approaching, and we’ve reached the part of the semester when students realize just how much they didn’t get done in the past three months. Even studying all year, those final projects are bound to sneak up on you, and chances are, amidst all the assignments, staying updated ...
-- Drew Robertson contributed to this article
“Foxcatcher,” released Nov. 14, is based on the true story of eccentric millionaire John du Pont, heir to the du Pont family fortune amassed from the DuPont chemical company. The film's plot examines what success means to those who already have it.As if to bury his previous comedic work, Steve ...
Although perhaps the most well-known female superhero, Wonder Woman's origins have remained unclear since her creation. The character has been a part of American cultural history since 1941, when a man named William Moulton Marston wrote the first comic, published under the pseudonym Charles Moulton. Tufts ...
The comedy world has been turned on its head of late with accusations of sexual misconduct swirling around industry legend, Bill Cosby. On Tuesday, the story of the first lawsuit to be filed as a result of recent allegations (a 2005 case was settled out of court) against Cosby broke on major news outlets. ...
A young Lila Ramani sat in her high chair bobbing her head back and forth in between bites of Cheerios to the Spanish music her parents put on the stereo. After a checkup with the family pediatrician it was determined Ramani had a mild case of boogie fever, and was prescribed a guitar to treat the ...
Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!Fortune, Virtue and Love: An Evening of Opera Scenes: Join the Tufts Opera Ensemble for a night of music and drama as they perform works of opera and musical theater. Scenes to be performed include those from works such as "Dido and Aeneas" ...
With fall miniseries “Olive Kitteridge,” HBO is proving its ability to successfully adapt long-form narrative to the small screen. The new drama, based on Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning short stories, is a triumph in artful storytelling. Character studies, traditionally ...
In October, The Velvet Underground announced they'd be releasing a reissue of their third album -- "The Velvet Underground" (1969) -- to celebrate its 45th anniversary. However, what came out on Nov. 24 was certainly not an average reissue from the legendary band, but instead a six disc, ...
Hailing from the bizarre and distinct Floridian metropolis that is Miami, Pitbull -- also known as Mr. Worldwide, a self-selected nickname -- has, in recent years, made himself into a staple of pop music. The origins of this inexplicably popular mainstream rapper are important: Pitbull is known to ...
The first track on Loscil’s newest album “Sea Island,” released late last month, isn’t just an exercise in sonic balance -- it’s an exercise in physical balance as well. Loscil, the solo project of Scott Morgan, relies as much on the computer-generated sounds it features as on the musical introspection inherent in Morgan’s compilation. The album begins with a two-note exchange on “Ahull," played out as though it is being delivered through alternating speakers -- the repeated note ricochets back and forth for the first minute before being joined by a series of other notes, then chimes and, finally, additional instrumentation.
