Artsweek

Dazed and Confused in the Desert

April 23, 2009 by , and

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 glasse...
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Menomena @ Velvet Jones

April 23, 2009 by

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 un...
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Brit Beneath the Big Top

April 23, 2009 by

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....
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Low-fi Love at the Biko Co-op

April 23, 2009 by

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 ...
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Quick Takes:

April 23, 2009 by

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.
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Psychedelic Mushrooms

April 23, 2009 by

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...
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Spending 4/20 With Fleet Foxes

April 23, 2009 by

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 s...
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Mirah Shows Another Side at SOhO

April 16, 2009 by

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 h...
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Grading the GreenScreens

April 16, 2009 by

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...
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“Dance Dammit!” Soars Over Expectations

April 16, 2009 by

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

April 16, 2009 by

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...
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Otherworldly ****

April 16, 2009 by

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 identi...
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No Chance of Parole *

April 16, 2009 by

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 n...
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“Dragonball” Zzzzzzz… *

April 16, 2009 by

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.
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New UAM Exhibit Honors UCSB’s Brown

April 9, 2009 by

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 wit...
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