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Posted inMusic, Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Giants of East Africa Orchestra Super Mazembe (Earthworks) In 1991, Earthworks released the compilation Guitar Paradise of East Africa, a title that was less hyperbole than a plain statement of fact. One of the disc’s highlights was “Shauri Yako,” an early-’80s number from the Kenyan-out-of-the-Congo 13-piece Orchestra Super Mazembe that lasted nine and a half […]

Posted inMusic, Music Features

Sound Advice

Cincinnati’s Over The Rhine has built up a considerable cult following over their decade-or-so existence, and on the evidence of their most recent album, 2001’s Films for Radio (released on Virgin, the band’s second flirtation with the major-label game), it’s not hard to see why. Lead singer Karin Bergquist’s charismatic, sometimes florid vocals are ear-catching, […]

Posted inFilm Features, Film/TV

Death Becomes Her

A remake of a massively popular Japanese film of the same name, current box-office champ The Ring opens with a set piece similar to that of the Scream series. It’s a dark and stormy night in a big, mostly empty house. Two comely teenage girls sit in one girl’s bedroom and gossip. By the end […]

Posted inMusic, Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Original Pirate Material The Streets (Vice/Atlantic) If hip hop is about representing your local culture on a global scale — something it’s become over the course of its 25-year journey from New York block-party entertainment to the dominant form of pop music — then Original Pirate Material, the debut album from the Streets, aka 23-year-old […]

Posted inMusic, Music Features

Sound Advice

Well, live-music nights downtown won’t get much bigger than this Wednesday, October 30th. Luckily, the big shows aren’t liable to attract the same audiences. While Wilco is rocking away on the rooftop of the Lounge, hometown heroes Saliva will make a return for one of the first shows on a fall tour in support of […]

Posted inFilm Features, Film/TV

Sweet and Low

Then I first read Tuck Everlasting, oh, about 20 years ago, I think I missed the point. A thoughtful children’s novel that meditates on the big issues of life and death, Tuck asks, Is life worth living forever? As a child unfamiliar with illness or dying, I was so afraid of the abstract concept of […]

Posted inNews, News Feature

A Sniper and His Spectacle

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here in the Washington area, all 143 Starbucks have stacked and chained their sidewalk tables, lest the chain’s customers be shot by the rampaging local sniper (or possibly snipers). Schools are locked down and guarded by police. Four of the sniper’s victims were shot dead while in gas stations, and many nervous […]

Posted inMusic, Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Wiretap Scars Sparta (Dreamworks) On the one hand, thank God this album comes with a lyrics sheet. For much of Wiretap Scars, Jim Ward’s vocals scour his words beyond recognition as he howls and shouts his way across some of the most compelling punk-flavored noise this side of Kill Rock Stars. On songs like “Mye” […]

Posted inMusic, Music Features

Sound Advice

As frontman for early-’90s punk band Jawbreaker, Blake Schwarzenbach was an innovator of sorts. The cult-favorite Jawbreaker was like a more modest Hüsker Dü or a positive thinker’s Replacements. For punk-reared high school and college-aged introverts, the band was a vital link between the indie and punk scene of the ’80s and the punk-pop explosion […]

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