Leisure

Wilco: the band, the myth, the album

In the music business, a sure way to foster interest in an artist (and thus sell records) is to build a mythology?a drama to underscore, if not transcend, the music. Typically, the most expedient way to mythologize oneself is by dying?to which still-robust catalog sales for Jimi Hendrix, Nick Drake and Lynyrd Skynyrd attest.

By the Voice Staff August 22, 2002

Leisure

RJD2’s Deadringer: Everyone loves it but us

So-called underground hip-hop has gotten big pushes from New York’s Definitive Jux records, the home of DJ and producer RJD2. RJ has done some great work in the past; his remix of “The F-Word” pushed the envelope of Harlem rap act Cannibal Ox’ murky, moody machine funk, while “June” brought heartbreaking guitar to what was possibly Copywrite’s only introspective moment on the mic, ever.

By the Voice Staff August 22, 2002

Leisure

Summer books gone wild!

Prague by Arthur Phillips Random House, $24.99 In his posthumously published memoirs of life in 1920s Paris, Hemingway wrote, “You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death.

By the Voice Staff August 22, 2002

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Brothers of invention

For those of us whose late-summer cultural highlight was the premiere of Blue Crush, it is none to soon to be back in the District. A good jumping-off point for live shows this fall will be next Wednesday, Aug. 28, at the 9:30 Club, when the Soledad Brothers open for Hope Sandoval and the Warm Intentions.

By the Voice Staff August 22, 2002

Leisure

Moby tries to recreate Play‘s success

18, the soon-to-be-released record from electronic pop all-star Moby, has all the symptoms of a crappy second record. It’s a boring, transparent stab at repeating the magic (and commercial success) of the multiplatinum-selling album that established him in the public’s eye.

By the Voice Staff April 25, 2002

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‘Danse’-ing queens

Surrounded by a motionless group of uber-indie rockers at a basement party in Pittsburgh, I realized it was sink or swim. My life jacket? The Faint’s Danse Macabre. Only minutes after slipping the shiny disc into a lifeless, tapped stereo that was previously playing some cochlea-combusting trance, new life was synthesized into my soon-to-be dance buddies.

By the Voice Staff April 25, 2002

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Scorcese’s The Last Waltz a forgettable relic

In 1976, The Band played its last show together at the Winterland theater in San Francisco after 16 years on the road. Filmmaker Martin Scorcese showed up to film the star-studded farewell show and somehow managed to create what many regard to be the finest rock concert film ever.

By the Voice Staff April 25, 2002

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Student films showcased at festival

There was no popcorn saturated in delectable globs of canola oil. There were no Sour Patch Kids to throw half-chewed at the screen in the event of boredom. And no one’s feet adhered mercilessly to a layer of slime on the floor. Instead, hosts and ushers in formal dress greeted the audience members upon arrival at the ICC Auditorium last night, for this was no ordinary evening at the movies.

By the Voice Staff April 25, 2002

Leisure

Wilco returns at long last

It’s nice to think that behind every great album there’s a great story, maybe even a great drama. Wilco endured a bona fide epic in its attempts to release its new album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Here’s the short version: Wilco recorded the follow-up to 1999’s remarkable Summerteeth and presented it to Reprise Records, who freaked over the record’s “uncommercial” sound and refused to release the album without extensive remixing.

By the Voice Staff April 25, 2002

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Oedipus wrecks drama stereotypes

If there are two concepts that get more bad press than “Greek melodrama” and “minimalist theater,” I don’t know what they are. Visions of overwraught harpies shrieking as they flounce around a bare stage to the strains of cheesy synth music are enough to make even the strong shudder.

By the Voice Staff April 18, 2002

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Promise Ring’s Wood/Water lacking elements

Many scenesters of the emo-pop persuasion might consider the Promise Ring demigods. You know?mythological, godlike creatures not quite divine, but still a step above mortal. Well, the Ring (as they are known casually to their fans) rode in on the emotional explosion of pop bands, when others such as Braid and Sunny Day Real Estate dried their tears and folded their handkercheifs.

By the Voice Staff April 18, 2002

Leisure

About a great soundtrack

by Marsha Chien

Radiohead, Starsailor, Muse, Oasis, Charlatans, Coldplay, Gomez, Travis, David Gray, Stereophonics, Belle & Sebastian, Ballboy, Stone Roses and Badly Drawn Boy are proof that despite declaring independence, Americans still find a place in their hearts for their relatives across the Atlantic.

By the Voice Staff April 18, 2002

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Imitations of rawk

Last week, MTV2 viewers were treated to a mini-marathon of vintage Nirvana clips to celebrate, what else, the eighth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. Not only did this probably cause nostalgic sighs across suburban America, but it also likely sparked laments over the spawn of half-ass imitators the band inspired.

By the Voice Staff April 18, 2002

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Osbournes bites head off clich?s

Eleven years after The Real World introduced the idea of reality TV, the form has come to dominate television. Most of these shows, The Real World included, consist of contrived scenarios that have become sordid at best. Fear Factor and Survivor, for example, are goal-oriented; the cast members are pitted against one another in sometimes nasty competitions for money.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

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Gomez peppers new LP with sundry influences

It’s hard to tell whether Britain is a conqueror or the serially invaded, imperialist or napkin for every culture’s coffee spill. No wonder they really love Gomez over there. The third proper full-length album from these Manchester lads, In Our Gun, continually stalks the fine line between being influenced by other artists and blatantly ripping them off.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

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Goya’s still got it

The exhibition, Goya: Images of Women, is an outstanding show at once witty, sensual and highly thoughtful. Displayed first in Spain, the exhibition comes to the National Gallery from Madrid’s premier art museum, El Prado. You might only recall Goya (Francisco Goya y Lucientes) from his celebrated paintings, two of the most stunning in the exhibition?the Maja Desnuda (Naked Maja) and the Maja Vestida (Clothed Maja).

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

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Voices carry on 14th

This week, grab that $1.10 and take the G2 Metrobus down to 14th Street. Strong and exciting women’s performance nights are just springing up all over the place there, and I suggest you catch them while they last. The first of the two, Mothertongue, is a women’s spoken word night.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

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Obsession, madness and murder

The opening, pre-show minutes of A Devil Inside set a mood: Anonymous skyscrapers are silhouetted against a chartreuse sky. Actors playing the plain and the pathetic do stage business in a seedy laundromat. The jangling and discordant sounds of Miles Davis’ “Pharaoh’s Dance” fill the air.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

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They got wet: Mulleted madman pleases fans

An extreme close-up of a young man’s face with long dirty hair flowing past his shoulders and copious amounts of blood streaming down his face and neck: Such is the highly controversial album cover art, and image, of Andrew W.K., the newest rock shocker to appear on the pop scene.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002