Eliav Appelbaum

May 29, 2003

Led Zeppelin | How the West Was Won | Atlantic

By Eliav Appelbaum

The first Led Zeppelin album added to a music collection is a special memory for everyone. At least, it was for me. Helping my old man arrange books and records at the Agoura Hills Library some years ago, a pile of shodd...

May 28, 2003

Ill Spittin’ Game: The Faces of the Game Make It Last

By Eliav Appelbaum

Three years in the same office and it's come down to three school days. When I first walked in to the Nexus about three years ago, it took me until this Tuesday afternoon to notice the smell.

May 22, 2003

UCSB Coaching Connection

By Eliav Appelbaum

"In the words of Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again." Current UCSB men's basketball Head Coach Bob Williams uttered those words March 6, with a sigh of relief, after his Gauchos narrowly escaped by the stubble on ...

May 22, 2003

Deftones | s/t | Maverick

By Eliav Appelbaum

When bands play hard and heavy, they always take the risk of thrumming out agonizingly slow, as if they were attempting to gorge John Madden's Thanksgiving Day turkey doused in 54 gallons of slop-gravy.

May 21, 2003

Ill Spittin’ Game: NBA Is Now Of Little Importance to Isla Vista

By Eliav Appelbaum

Anybody home? It’s the NBA’s Western Conference Finals, and this town just hit the snooze button on the alarm. I cruised through Isla Vista the other night on my Hell on Wheels – it’s a red fold-u...

May 16, 2003

Skultety Returns for 2003

By Eliav Appelbaum

The UCSB men's basketball team received great news on Wednesday from the NCAA: forward Bray Skultety will be awarded a rare sixth year of eligibility, Santa Barbara Head Coach Bob Williams said.

May 15, 2003

UCSB Coaching Connection

By Eliav Appelbaum

This is where it all began. Eleven years ago. It's hard to believe that they first sprouted their wings here. Three men gather for work in a drowsy city that sweeps effortlessly along a gentle curve of the Pacific.

May 15, 2003

The Black Keys | thickfreakness | Fat Possum

By Eliav Appelbaum

Remember the scene in "The Blues Brothers" when Jake and Elwood try to buy a smoking electric piano at Ray's Music Exchange in downtown Chicago?

May 13, 2003

Jack-of-All-Coaches

By Eliav Appelbaum

Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson should lay off the Funyuns and start laying down those retirement papers.An angioplasty last Saturday sidelined Jackson for all of two days, instead of the rest of the summer.

May 9, 2003

Turbonegro | Scandinavian Leather | Burning Heart

By Eliav Appelbaum

Make sure to plaster your cheeks in blush, douse your eyes with swanky liner, splash your lips with blood red lipstick - and don't you dare forget to don that sailor outfit buried in the closet, because Turbonegro is bac...

May 7, 2003

Ill Spittin’ Game: NBA Awards Don’t Add Up

By Eliav Appelbaum

The NBA postseason awards amount to giving a bottle of cologne for the Swamp Thing as a housewarming gift. Sure, the Thing might smell a tad less revolting and it would be a nice touch on the toadstool next to the sewage...

May 2, 2003

Rjd2 | The Horror | Definitive Jux

By Eliav Appelbaum

The Horror shimmies and struts with refreshingly vibrant and flavorful home-cooked beats and mixes that could perk up any old curmudgeon.

April 30, 2003

ILL Spittin’ Game: Timberwolves Not Alive in Game Five, L.A.’s Already Dead

By Eliav Appelbaum

Have you ever seen anything so despicable, in the eloquent words of Daffy Duck? Disregard last month's blind date to a wild boar with prominent yellow tusks and splotches of hairy moles, and your answer should be a defin...

April 24, 2003

Lucinda Williams | World Without Tears | Lost Highway

By Eliav Appelbaum

If you enjoy sipping froth off a double latte-espresso-mocha-quadruple-swirl and tethering your neck with a lavender cashmere shawl while sporting a staple clamped on your right eyebrow - then Lucinda Williams' smug and ...

April 18, 2003

A.R.E. Weapons | s/t | Rough Trade Records

By Eliav Appelbaum

These guys dare to be hip. And they succeed because they're just a tad bit deranged - armed with refreshingly dynamic lyrics and a foul-mouthed fightin' spirit to pull it off.

April 16, 2003

lll Spittin’ Game: Your Time’s Up, Mr. Jordan

By Eliav Appelbaum

If parting is such sweet sorrow, then somebody better pump the laughing gas way up because this ending has the aroma of a crummy, water-soiled dime store novel