Archive for the ‘ Other Music Reviews ’ Category

Grandma’s Boy Soundtrack is Worth a Listen


If you haven’t seen Grandma’s Boy, it’s definitely a must-see (especially if you love stupid humor!).

The movie is about a mid-30 year old single man, Alex, who works as a tester at a video game company. Getting evicted out of his house with no place to live, his last choice is to move in with his grandma and her two old lady roommates.The cast includes Allen Covert playing Alex, Linda Cardellini, Peter Dante, Kevin Nealon, Nick Swardson, Jonah Hill, and Dorris Roberts playing Alex’s grandma.

gmas b

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But He’s Justin Bieber!


 ”But He’s Justin Bieber!”

By: Joanne Serrieh

Justin Bieber, the teenage-heartthrob who has stolen young girls’ hearts since he was only 13, has seen better days than the past few weeks. Recently he has been faced with so many problems ranging from paparazzi encounters to being extremely late starting his show. He even collapsed on stage during another one of his shows. Bieber also canceled one of two concerts that were supposed to take place in Portugal.

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Top Five Favorite Movie Soundtracks


top 5

Music is a critical part of movies. Music creates the mood of a scene and, great care is taken into choosing the music that will be included in films. Quentin Tarantino, for example, has always claimed that music is an essential part of creating moods in his movies, even going to far as to not film the infamous scene where Uma Thurman dances (barefoot, of course, because Tarantino loves him some feet) in her living room to Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” right before she overdoses on heroin. For him, that scene would not have been right without that song. Some songs written specifically for movies have become a part of our pop culture, like songs from Grease and “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion for Titanic. The Oscars always includes categories for music, and this year Adele won an Oscar for the James Bond theme, “Skyfall.” Below, I have compiled a list of my five favorite movie soundtracks. 

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Concert Encores? More Like Concert NON-cores!


I FEEL YOUR PAIN KEANU

I FEEL YOUR PAIN KEANU

I remember my first big concert, at the Sleep Train Arena (back when it was Arco Arena), and being excited when the last act ended their last song, and the crowd called the group back on for a final encore. The arena had gone dark and the show seemed over, but the excitement was palpable. The crowd chanted for Lip Bizkit to come back on (I was 13 and it was the 90s….), and when the band came back on stage, the crowd went wild. I remembered being  amazed that the band had performed an encore, like they had come back on stage just for their fans. The more concerts I went to, the more I realized that it was all a lie: encores were planned, and not the spontaneous act they seemed to be.

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Album Review: Vuvuzala – “The Hollow Choir”


Vuvuzela is a New York based band that warms my black heart. They rose from the ashes of a chaotic indie band I adored called Kiss Kiss and thankfully retain the weirdness that the former band carried.

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Over a year ago I contributed my first $10 to a fund-raising effort on KickStarter. This project was the attempt to fund the recording of Vuvuzela’s EP, “The Hollow Choir.” The band succeeded and in the time since then, I bugged the hell out of the band about the recording and kept an eye on their progress. I was often given vague responses which made it almost frustrating to read things like “Recording percussion today for our almost finished album! Cabasa, Guiro and Vibraphone Oh My!” and ” One of the most unfulfilling things you can do is record an entire album, listen to it 30x in your car, and then not release it for months!!” on the band’s twitter over that year. I wanted to hear whatever this beautiful monster was going to be as time went on, so being so secretive certainly helped to build hype and excitement in me.

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Gary Clark, Jr. “Blak and Blu” Album Review


Blak and Blu

It came from the south and spread to cities like Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit. Now Gary Clark, Jr. is bringing the blues back to Texas. This state is home to some legendary blues guitar players such as Albert Collins, Lightning Hopkins, Johnny Winter, but most notably and more well known to the casual fan, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Clark was found by Vaughan’s older brother, Jimmy, and he became big around the Austin, Texas scene before achieving more notable success. Clark lives up to that standard and then some on his new offering. This is the follow up to his smash EP, “The Bright Lights EP.”

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Where are the rock stars?


At the beginning of its conception, rock and roll always had its poster boys, from Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan to Axl Rose and Seven Tyler. However, the age of the rock star is gone. The days of sold out stadiums and arenas, the sex, drugs, rock n roll life style, and the iconic rock stars are all gone. Why has such a fantastic thing as that disappeared, or rather burned out?

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Amazing Metal You’re Not Hearing – 7.18.12


Greetings once more from your KSSU Loud Rock Director and welcome to the second installment of AMYNH!

Black metal summer

I shan’t waste your time with a silly introduction this time, but I will instead plunge us right into another batch of lovely metal releases. This round includes bands from Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Helsinki (Finland).

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CD Review: Esperanza Spalding “Radio Music Society”


Radio Music Society is the most appropriate title for this album by Esperanza Spalding. Listening to this CD, I felt when each track changed, I was going to a new radio station on the dial. There are jazz and lounge qualities to the album, then the tracks in between were rock and rol-esque. Esperanza made me think of Sade with a 1930′s lounge singer style. The range that the singer has is amazing, scatting like an old time jazz singer, who has the vocal range of some great singers. This singer does more than put out a voice, she also plays bass and violin. She is an artist apart of the Chamber Music Society. Most recently, she appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman in March, before going on tour.

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Music Review: “MDNA” by Madonna


There is absolutely nothing new here.

The track titles, the beats, the lyrics, the production, everything has been done before.

So how come this is such a captivating album?

Well, first of all, it’s Madonna we’re talking about.  ”MDNA” is simply another one of her evolutions that she has undergone to stay in the public eye, and yet, it’s actually somewhat good.  The thing about Madonna is that she is ALWAYS trying to stay “hip”, yet she never looks like a poser doing it.  Maybe this is the same sorcery that is keeping her looking great at the age of 53, by which point most women would’ve long traded their metallic leotards for high-waisted sweatpants and a sweater from their oldest child’s college.  Now, I don’t know how she does it–for all I know, she could be slaughtering unicorns and drinking their silver blood in the dead of night–but you gotta admire her persistence and ability to stay strong in the industry for so long. Read more

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