CONCERT REVIEW Feathered headdresses, hypnotizing songs
After much anticipation, Jónsi finally decided to take a breather from Sigur Rós and go solo. Upon walking on stage, he looks shy and unassuming. With his feathered headdress and raggedy clothes, I imagined him and his band as nomads who go from place to place to tell a powerful story about the journey to freedom. As soon as he parted his lips to sing, the crowd quieted down to listen.
INTERVIEW Learning to enunciate
Cymbals Eat Guitars first entered my consciousness as the most indie named band of 2009. But then the buzz started filtering in. “Have you heard that band that channels Pavement from Staten Island?” And, “oh I love Cymbals Eat Guitars, they’re that band from Staten Island that sounds like Modest Mouse.”
CONCERT REVIEW Beware the orchestra nerd
They’re clearly the most fun to make fun of in middle school and high school. Among a sea of athletes and garage bands, the pianists, percussionists, the trumpeteers, the clarinetists, and even violinists are social outcasts in the grand scheme of ridiculous adolescent social circles. But in the musical hierarchy, they’re somehow top dog. They’re cool; they sit at the back of the bus during band tours. Somehow they exude confidence, knowing they command the respect of the small circle of art aficionados, of the small enclave adults and peers that cultivate this sort of erudition.
DOUBLE SOY LATTE, PLEASE! You say good pie, I say hello Petsi Pies serves up classic American baked goods in a funky-fresh atmosphere
Businesses that alliterate their names make me nervous. As in, “Lovely Loyal Landscapers,” “Cool Carpet Cleaners,” or perhaps worst of all, “Julie’s Jubilant Jewelry Shop”. That last one conjures up images of a fourteen year-old girl with braces and pigtails making lanyards in her room, selling them from her front porch, getting the change wrong and definitely not filing her taxes. But thanks to the recent announcement by the mighty mindful MWRA to boil Boston’s broken pipe water, I found myself café-hopping on the safe side of the river and quite spontaneously stumbled into Petsi Pie. With a name like that, located in a neighborhood full of quaint front porches near Harvard Square, I couldn’t help but be highly skeptical.
INTERVIEW On pop, technology, and the 90s
<i>Cobra Starship, the dance/synth/pop group will be coming to Boston on May 9 at the House of Blues. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to speak with the articulate and thoughtful Ryland Blackinton, the guitarist, about the band, Boston, and music. Thanks to Kelly McWilliam from Atlantic Records for making it happen.</i>
CONCERT REVIEW A misty-eyed ‘Sing Delivery’ wraps up the year The heartfelt performances at the Chorallaries spring concert got even the audience teary
Last Friday, April 30th, the Chorallaries of MIT sang in their annual spring concert, aptly titled “Sing Delivery” by virtue of the fact that the sophomores’ Ring Delivery fell on the same night. The Chorallaries are MIT’s oldest coed a cappella group, known for their ambitious arrangements and solid vocals. This last concert served as an enthusiastic showcase of both their never-before-heard singles and classics from years before.
INTERVIEW No such thing as too much rhythm
<i>The White Rabbits put on a show last Saturday night I can only describe as a whirlwind of rhythm someone lobbed a grenade into. Their songs are constructed from the shambles and wreckage. A descending piano line here, a trebled vibrato of guitars, and the strain of vocals, all scattered and re-assembled in the deafening echo chamber of that neverending percussion.</i>
CONCERT REVIEW Los Campesinos!, take two.
I miss Aleks Campesinos. The waifish redhead keyboardist seemed even smaller in person when I saw Los Campesinos! last year. Dwarfed by the keyboard, she looked straight out of a college band recital. Same went for the rest of the band. Average height, average looks. I don’t know what parts indie rockers are supposed to play, but none of the members of Los Campesinos! were cast to fit the bill.
MOVIE REVIEW Contradictions, deceit, and dirty politics
“Cartel,” <i>noun</i>, is just another word for a trust, a coalition and in some ways, a monopoly. A cartel is also what former Bloomberg Television reporter Bob Bowdon labels the American education system. Given the United States’ persistent anti-trust efforts, shouldn’t they have already scrutinized and addressed this increasingly out-of-control industry? Perhaps the problem is that few actually know about all the messy politics entangled with our schools. In Bowdon’s 90-minute rapid-fire documentary, he makes sure that his audience understands that in addition to health care and the economy, there is another crisis in this country.
SPECIAL FEATURE Rock star of the classical world visits MIT
Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel visited MIT during Patriot’s Day weekend to receive this year’s $75,000 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, conducting the MIT Symphony Orchestra in an open rehearsal and taking part in a panel discussion on music education.
CONCERT REVIEW Bible stories for adults
Given the short shrift faced by choral music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it’s surprising that Dominick Argento has attained the status he has. Argento’s creative output includes a vast array of operas, choral works and song cycles (one of which, <i>From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, </i>earned him the Pulitzer Prize in music in 2004), yet a surprisingly small output of orchestral works: a relatively small number of symphonies and concerti, and practically no chamber works.
THEATER REVIEW Evil Dead: The Musical is a must-see
The MIT Musical Theatre Guild is currently putting on <i>Evil Dead: The Musical</i>, based on the Evil Dead franchise from Sam Raimi. Personally, I’m somewhat ambivalent regarding the “post-modern” musical, the show that is aware that it’s a musical and tries too hard to draw attention to that fact. My biggest complaint is that these musicals seem almost lazily written, with the occasional self-referential joke used to fill in wherever an in-universe one can’t be found. That’s not the case with <i>Evil Dead</i>. Rather, <i>Evil Dead</i> represents what a postmodern musical would look like with everyone involved — the songwriter, lyricist, book writer, and the characters — were wholly dedicated to making the show as self-aware as possible, and doing so stylistically rather than attempting to be ironic about it. The result is a show that revels hilariously in its horror movie roots as it deconstructs the genre at the same time. Combined with MTG’s remarkably talented, very B-movie execution, <i>Evil Dead: The Musical</i> is conceivably the most fun and entertaining show I’ve seen on campus.
MOVIE REVIEW Everyone should have a pet dragon
Dreamworks has finally taken its stance against Pixar in animated films. <i>How to Train Your Dragon</i> took the top spot at the box office on its debut weekend on March 26, and has grossed over $158,251,066 since then. Like your usual fairy tales, <i>How to Train Your Dragon</i> has the formulaic plot of an unlikely hero saving the entire city from probable destruction and finally getting the girl of his dreams.
CONCERT REVIEW Francophile!
Of the languages that are most frequently performed in the Western canon (Latin, Italian, French, German and sometimes Russian and Spanish), French is most often eschewed, most usually because of the difficulty in its diction. At least in English speaking countries, it seems there are as many schools of pronunciation as there are people willing to subscribe to them. And this is in modern French; how many different ways to pronounce Medieval French? franco-Latin? Least of all to mention the difficulties of twentieth-century French music which, after the daring harmonic advancements of Claude Debussy and Francis Poulenc, became some unholy amalgam of jazz imbued with traditional choral forms.
DOUBLE SOY LATTE, PLEASE! Muffins and mochi, turkey and tofu
Three things from recent memory come to mind when I think of the phrase “pleasant surprise”: Modern Family, for restoring my faith in the family sitcom; the Saferide tracking screen outside W20, for preserving our sanity; and Dado Tea, for being like no other café in the Greater Boston area.
MOVIE REVIEW Dragon Tattoo brings back the art of moviemaking
When I walked into the theater to see <i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i>, all I knew about the film was that it was Swedish and that its general buzz was very positive. In retrospect, I’m convinced that my initial lack of exposure was a good thing; a two-and-a-half hour Swedish mystery film based on a book whose title translates literally to <i>Men who Hate Women</i> and whose poster highlights a creepy looking Goth girl is not exactly my idea of a fun Friday night.
ALBUM REVIEW Pretty confections for the ears
Zooey Deschanel is the pinup girl of the indie scene. Her porcelain doll features and piercing blue eyes, framed in a mass of raven waves, are her trademarks. She shows up on the red carpet in divine vintage pieces. Oh, did I mention that her husband is Ben Gibbard, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie? All she has to do as the indie sweetheart is continue her role as a vivacious sprite in cult-indie films and maybe dabble in an album or two. Her music duo with M. Ward, She and Him, released their sophomore album <i>Volume Two</i>, much to the rejoicing of her devoted followers.
ALBUM REVIEW Sotti defies the jazz musician stereotype
Those of you who follow what I write might know of my interest in the interplay between a country’s inherent culture and the music it produces. Italian guitarist Fabrizio Sotti is an apt example. Since the death of Marcus Aurelius, the Italians haven’t quite been renowned for their sense of urgency. While the higher-browed and straighter-lipped of their European brethren may poke fun at the sloth of this Mediterranean cradle of the West (here’s looking at you Berlusconi), you have to give them credit. After all, while you’re criticizing Italy for its mafia-style government and easy-going lifestyle, an Italian man is probably sleeping with your girlfriend. Italy may be the degenerate skeleton of the Roman Empire, but damn they’re smooth. Their plethora of Lotharios only adds to the stereotypical image of the tall, dark, and handsome Italian.
BALLET REVIEW Girl plays doll plays girl
If you would not exactly describe yourself as a balletomane, but rather the can-handle-seeing-the-Nutcracker-once-every-holiday-season type, then consider challenging yourself with Saint-León’s <i>Coppélia</i>,<i> </i>choreographed by George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova, performed by the Boston Ballet Company from now until April 18. It includes all the entertaining elements of <i>The Nutcracker </i>— a bit of fairy-tale magic, toys coming to life, the impressive array of costumes — plus an extra act!
CONCERT REVIEW Changing perceptions, changing the rules
For as beautifully and thoughtfully as Saturday evening’s performance was conceived, programmed and performed, the third concert of Musica Sacra’s 50th anniversary season also managed to present significant challenges to both audience and performer. In a program entitled <i>The Spirit is Still Speaking: Sacred Choral Music of the Modern Era</i>, Musica Sacra performed five works; wo were world premieres, and all were written within the last forty years.