Artsweek

April 23, 2009

Dazed and Confused in the Desert

By Amy Silverstein, Virginia Yapp, Michael Hafford

By the time Crystal Castles' set in the Sahara tent ended early Friday evening, my muscles were sore, my skin was covered in other people's sweat and one of the lenses from my prescription glasses had gone missing.&...

April 23, 2009

Menomena @ Velvet Jones

By Matthew Schmitt

For some reason, I had gotten it into my head that the band opening last Saturday evening at Velvet Jones was going to be The Sea and Cake, so you can imagine I was initially a bit confused when an unfamiliar figure, sin...

April 23, 2009

Brit Beneath the Big Top

By Sara Weitz

Despite the ample supply of confetti, little people, daring acrobatic feats, rings of fire and an extravaganza of lights found last Thursday at L.A.'s STAPLES Center, this was not your average circus. Ringmaster Britney ...

April 23, 2009

Low-fi Love at the Biko Co-op

By Steven Morris

I avoided Kimya Dawson like a plague the last time she came through Isla Vista and played at the Pink Mailbox back in 2007. "Juno," the Oscar-nominated "indie" darling of that year, had recently come out and the soundtra...

April 23, 2009

Quick Takes:

By Hunter M. Daniels

Watching "Crank: High Voltage" is like seeing a porn star strapped with dynamite launched out of a cannon into a brick wall: loud, dumb, gratuitous and delightfully offensive.

April 23, 2009

Psychedelic Mushrooms

By Artsweek Editor

Before seeing the band's set, I was rather surprised to see a long line of students waiting to see an Israeli trance duo named after an afflicted fungus wrapped around the UCen. Last Wednesday evening in the Hub, Infecte...

April 23, 2009

Spending 4/20 With Fleet Foxes

By Artsweek Editor

Two days after playing to a sweaty Coachella crowd, the musicians of Fleet Foxes must have felt a bit of déjà vu when they looked out into the crowd and saw it full of the same smiling and stoned faces looking ...

April 16, 2009

Mirah Shows Another Side at SOhO

By Steven Morris

A roommate, a classmate and my favorite cat lady all bailed on our plan of going to see Mirah last Wednesday evening at SOhO, but I didn't let it get me down. I headed downtown all by my lonesome to hear three very lovel...

April 16, 2009

Grading the GreenScreens

By Steven Morris

UCSB's GreenScreen program is one more step in the film & media studies major's recent emphasis that links cinema with environmentalism. The four films, more than two quarters in the making, premiered last Saturday eveni...

April 16, 2009

“Dance Dammit!” Soars Over Expectations

By Steven Morris

as a backdrop. Up front, several dancers tore off their pea coats to reveal orange and blue outfits designed by Jessica Chernicki. The synth-filled glitch pop of Múm combined with the contrast of styles made for a s...

April 16, 2009

Neil Young: An Old Dog With Some Pretty Crappy Tricks *

By Jacob Mark Schpall

Upon first listening to Neil Young's new album, Fork in the Road, one gets the feeling that the artist was on a personal quest to find the most unexciting ideas and lyrics and lump them together as an album. Neil Young's...

April 16, 2009

Otherworldly ****

By Stephanie Leong

English artist Natasha Khan brings back the atmospheric, intricately orchestrated style of her debut album on her follow-up, Two Suns, a record that explores the instability and multiplicity of identity and takes place i...

April 16, 2009

No Chance of Parole *

By Hunter M. Daniels

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A naïve and rage-filled man date rapes a girl so schnockered that she doesn't realize the vomit on her blouse is her own. He pounds away at her until he notices that she has ...

April 16, 2009

“Dragonball” Zzzzzzz… *

By Hunter M. Daniels

Over the holiday weekend, I found myself cornered at the Passover Seder table by a cousin (aged five-and-three-fourths years old) who seemed determined to tell me a story.

April 9, 2009

New UAM Exhibit Honors UCSB’s Brown

By Stephanie Leong

Among the three recently opened exhibitions at the University Art Museum, "Signs of His Times: Gary H. Brown's Works and Selected Gifts to the University Art Museum" is instantly memorable, filled with iconic and inspiri...

April 9, 2009

Dynamic Living Thing ****

By Alexander Congrove Reporter

Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John spices up its instrumentation a bit on its sophomore effort, Living Thing; the group's addition of a more eclectic, electronic sound to its insanely catchy brand of rock will undoubtedly...