THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2009
ENTERTAINMENT
9
REVIEWS
For reviews of "The Hangover" and Mos Def's new album, check out Kansan.com
MUSIC
"Idol" star acknowledges sexuality in new interview
magazine, where he talks about sex, drugs and his "Idol" experiences.
NEW YORK — "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert has landed the cover of Rolling Stone
anyone.
The 27-year-old singer from San Diego acknowledges in an interview that he's gay, and says it shouldn't come as a surprise to
"I'm proud of my sexuality,' he says. "I embrace it. It's just another part of me."
Music: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Associated Press
I honestly can't remember much of the concert the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played on June 3 at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, Mo. I was left with stinging neon afterimages and a newfound addiction to Yeah Yeah Yeahs concerts. I'd better come clean now: I'm a Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan.
The group played its old songs with gusto, despite this tour being a promotion for its new album, "It's Blitz!" For the first song, "Heads Will Roll", lead singer Karen O wore a bizarre hood that had a spiral of pink lights. This playful eccentricity defines, at least in part, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' music. The group's image, with crazy Karen O at front and center with her band mates cloaked in the shadows, meshes with its music with startling fluidity.
Adam Schoof/KANSAN
It's hard to categorize the Yeah Yeah
Yeahs in a genre, especially with the group's new album, in which it has incorporated a new synthetic sound to its minimalist guitar-and-drums music. Yet the group members have not drifted from their roots; they've simply elevated themselves, very daintily, to the next level.
Adam Schoof
Music: Peter Bjorn and John
ine trio Peter Bjorn and John have come out with its fifth album "Living Thing," an album chock full of electronic beats, swelling guitars and odd lyrics. The group swayed away from the indie feel of its third album "Writer's Block" and created something unexpected.
Though the head-bopping single "Nothing to Worry About" makes the album, it feels as if the rest of the tunes are trying to be just as good as it is —
The melody in the title track "Living Thing" evokes a flashback to the swooning vocal lines in The Lion King, and is hard to take seriously, which could very well be the point, but it doesn't mesh well with the seemingly serious lyrics of the track.
and don't make the cut.
Overall, the album is not worth the money. If you enjoy a tune that lets you get down, then purchase "Nothing to Worry About" on iTunes. It's worth the buck.
— Ross Stewart
Music: The Dave Matthews Band
LeRoi Moore,
saxophonist
for the Dave
Matthews Band
for 20 years, died last August at 46 of complications from injuries suffered in an off-road-vehicle accident on his farm in Virginia. He died early in the production of "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," however his presence is felt in every aspect of the album. The first track, "Grux," begins with a tribute to Moore, with a high pitched saxophone melody backed up by drummer Carter Beauford and bassist Stefan Lessard. Not only is LeRoil's presence felt throughout the album, but his death creates an ominous presence that
The album's undertones are not all about LeRoi's death, but also a eulogy dedicated to his life. After mixing Moore's solos, death undertones, and lyrical praises, "Big Whiskey" seems a funeral procession in itself, contributing to the deepest album Matthews has made yet.
can only be created by a tragedy. His death allows Matthews to dig deep within his lyrical genius to pull up some of his most meaningful songs yet. Matthews also brings out his infamous growls in almost a rocker type fashion throughout his song "Squirm," creating not only dark lyrics but also an all around dark tone.
Hannah DeClerk