All Entries Tagged With: "Nick RIzzuto"
Soon in Theaters: Splice (6/4/2010)
Vincenzo Natali’s science-fiction monster movie Splice, featuring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, comes to theaters on June 4th, 2010. Last week, Drexelist writer Nick Rizzuto was given a sneak peak of the movie and the chance to interview director Vincenzo Natali.
Yeasayer, w/ Sleigh Bells, @ The Troc, 5/5/10
Now that you have some background, let me try to explain Sleigh Bells sound to you. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. Okay… so start with all of your conceptions of pop music. Alright. Now throw them out the window. Shatter the window. Now you’re one step closer to understanding Sleigh Bells. Go over to their Myspace and listen to “Infinity Guitars” or “Crown on the Ground” to see what I mean because I couldn’t find an mp3 to stream.
What you’re hearing is a production style in the same ballpark as the lo-fi movement that has been going on for a couple years now in indie music. M.I.A. exhibits this tendency but essentially what it comprises of is pushing down the overall mix of the vocals to the point where they seem to be drowning in the rest of the song. Instead of emphasizing the vocals the production works to emphasize the guitar, synths, and drums – something that is usually the first no-no you learn as a producer. Yet, despite sounding wrong and unorthodox, there is some undeniable beauty to this sound. And, no one does it better than Sleigh Bells.
M.I.A.’s Newest Controversy – Ginger Genocide in “Born Free”
M.I.A. sent out dozens of tweets to Pitchfork’s almost 1.5 million followers throughout the day, but nothing had quite as much of an impact as the release of the ten-minute long video for “Born Free”. I won’t get into much commentary in case you haven’t seen it, but I’m telling you that it is nothing short of classic. Controversial, bloody, gory – essentially the movie The Hurt Locker plus redheaded young men plus genocide. Consider this sentence my disclaimer though: you will be disturbed! I would advise against watching the video at work and against watching it at all if you do not respond well to gore.
Spring Jam from the VIP
Watching the concert festivities from the balcony, we couldn’t help but notice the lack of attendance for the first act, Kevin Rudolph. This wasn’t a huge surprise, seeing as how the musician only has two popular songs, both of which feature other artists. The only marvel to been seen was the great care many Drexel students took in creating lavish ensembles out of the Red Cross’ free glow-stick necklaces…
Spring Jam 2010 Recap!
Finally was what all this anticipation was building up for – Kevin Rudolf. And boy were we disappointed Drexel. I guess we should have expected it but Kevin Rudolf was hardly a performer; he just stood there in his sunglasses playing guitar. There was no interaction with the audience or even acknowledgment that we were watching him. With people continuously screaming “Where’s Lil’ Wayne?” and “Get off the stage!” I found myself yelling for him just to play “Let it Rock” again even though I am not a fan of this song or Kevin Rudolf as an artist.
What was amazing though is that although Kevin has had 3 Billboard Top 40 hits in the last year and a half, the crowd at the Armory didn’t reach its maximum for the night until it was time for N.E.R.D. The rap group has never really had all that much success in their career, but Pharrell Williams is essentially a household name to Drexel students for his work with pretty much every relevant artist under the sun, his producer group the Neptunes, singing “Snooooo-oop” on “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, and because of that one summer where pretty much every song on the radio featured Pharrell. Pharrell was the first T-Pain, if you will, yet he never had to resort to any auto-tune but just gained our respect from his chill attitude and general badass persona.
