A
MUSIC
The Oolahs Best Stop Pop
In 2003, Greg Ekland made the wise career move of leaving Everclear. After giving up drums and taking up the guitar, he joined up with his brother Mark and talented singer/guitarist Olivia Stone, and the Oohlas were born.
Combining power pop with dreamy landscapes, the Oohlas have a nice sound, but they're missing one important ingredient — variety. Lack of variety sinks a lot of bands. It's currently suffocating thousands of pop rock bands, and it managed to get a hold of the Oohlas as well.
Despite this, Best Stop Pop does have some good songs including the mysterious "Tripped," the catchy "Cahuenga Shuffle," and the driving "Small Parts." Olivia Stone's vocals bring to mind the beautiful vocals of Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. But when Greg
Ekland sings, the album suffers. Luckily, that's only a couple of songs.
So, Best Stop Pop has several good songs, but when you've heard about two of them, you've essentially heard all that The Oohlas have to offer.
Chris Brower
The Covenant
MOVIE
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined Carrie with Laguna Beach, The Crucible and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation? Neither have I, but throw in some bad acting with a soundtrack lifted from eight other movies and you've got The Covenant.
The movie is about the descendants of five families that founded the Ipswich Colony, which was the epicenter of the Salem witch trials. As gruesome and interesting as witch-hunting is, that one sentence summary of the plot is twice as interesting as anything that actually happens in The Covenant.
It is impossible to tell who the movie is for and what kind of movie it is trying to be. It's about kids in a New England prep school who kill people with special powers, so maybe it's a horror movie. But there are a ton of action sequences, so maybe it's an action-horror movie. But it's rated PG-13 with a gratuitous locker room scene (for the ladies). So who knows? The only people who should be buying tickets to The Covenant are eight graders who need a dark place to make out on their first date.
Dennis Mersmann
ALL RATINGS ARE OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE STARS. ★★★★