Artsweek

April 2, 2009

A Little Spring In Your Step

By Virginia Yapp

Artsweek compiles some of the season's choice entertainment for your convenience.

April 2, 2009

A Blitz-ful Experience ****

By Aaron Harms

In the early 2000s, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs burst onto the indie/alternative/punk/art garage rock scene with its debut album, Fever to Tell. The New York trio's debut featured a unique sound that it continued to rely on in i...

April 2, 2009

A Cloudy Forecast *****

By Sara Weitz

Although “Sunshine Cleaning” may share some DNA with popular indie hit “Little Miss Sunshine,” the films could not be more different. While “Little Miss Sunshine” follows a dysfunction...

April 2, 2009

A Monstrous Monstrosity *

By Hunter M. Daniels

“Monsters Vs. Aliens.” Stop and think about that for a minute. Monsters. Versus. Aliens. If that title doesn’t give your inner 10-year old boy a seizure of awesome, I don’t know what will. Think a...

March 5, 2009

Pure, Unadulterated No Age

By Hunter M. Daniels

Every generation claims that rock is dead. And every generation has been wrong. Someone always comes around. Whether it's Jimi Hendrix, Axl Rose or Kurt Cobain, there is always someone with a new spin on that old three-c...

March 5, 2009

Q&A: A Chat With No Age Frontman Randy Randell

By Artsweek Editor

Guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Sprunt are collectively known as the noise punk band No Age. Randy and Dean have become iconic in the L.A. music scene, inspiring hordes of imitators and inspiring throngs of rail...

March 5, 2009

Another Acid High *****

By Artsweek Editor

The Black Lips' musical talent somehow surpasses its considerable reputation for debauchery. That's saying a lot for a band that has been banned from multiple concert venues in L.A. for its members making out onstage and...

March 5, 2009

Joaquin’s “Two Lovers” ****

By Sara Weitz

James Gray is one of the rare dark romantic filmmakers left in Hollywood, and he demonstrates his mastery of this style with his most recent film, "Two Lovers." The film, which features a performance by the Letterman-bel...

March 5, 2009

UCSB Actors Prove “Conways” To Be Timeless

By Amy Silverstein

Thespians from the UCSB Dept. of Theatre & Dance showed off their convincing British accents this weekend in a well-acted performance of "Time and the Conways," a melodramatic play written by playwright J.B. Priestley in...

March 5, 2009

Batsheva Dance Co. Comes to SB

By Jacob Mark Schpall

The Batsheva Dance Company is based in Tel Aviv and was founded in 1964. Its members consider themselves ambassadors of the Israeli artistic community. Some people believe that Batsheva is a ploy to give the Israeli imag...

February 26, 2009

Not Exactly Child’s Play *****

By Hunter M. Daniels

There is something to be said for taking risks. Without great risk, there can be no great reward. Sometimes that risk leads you to something average like "Keeping Up with the Steins"; other times, it leads you to brillia...

February 26, 2009

Watching the Oscars: A Bore of a Chore

By Amy Silverstein

Sure, The clothes were pretty, and "Slumdog Millionaire" won a well-deserved seven awards, including Best Picture, but last Sunday's 81st Annual Academy Awards ceremony was an incredibly stupid event.  These were, i...

February 26, 2009

“Friday the 13th” to the Nth Degree **

By Hunter M. Daniels

You already know if you want to see "Friday the 13th" or not. If you can hum or pant the iconic score, you might very well enjoy the movie. But if it takes more than blood, tits and hockey masks to get you going, you're ...

February 26, 2009

Charming, But Slight ***

By Jacob Mark Schpall

Morrissey has been freakishly successful in his attempt to separate himself from the legendary Smiths. It is an understandably difficult task for an artist to surgically remove him or herself from the original group. Pro...

February 26, 2009

Within the Fray ***

By Sara Weitz

It's hard to believe that it has already been four years since the debut album of the Fray. The titular track for that album, "How To Save a Life," became a huge television-fueled phenomenon of a single after being featu...

February 19, 2009

Legends Perform Ginsberg Tribute

By Amy Silverstein

Most college students might assume that "hipster" is a recently coined term, but the late poet Allen Ginsberg wrote about "angelheaded hipsters" in "Howl," his famous 1955 poem that celebrates the rebellious Beat movemen...