Artist: Crying
Crying is a New York-based rock trio consisting of vocalist Elaiza Santos, guitarist and keyboardist Ryan Galloway and drummer Nick Corbo. Once a chiptune act, the band has recently seen a drastic evolvement in form, favoring stadium rock sounds akin to Rush over digitized GameBoy pop.
In 2013, Crying dropped “Get Olde,” a chiptune hybrid that had strong elements...
Director Mel Gibson could have created a banal war-hero movie with this World War Two biopic “Hacksaw Ridge.” While the plot somewhat utilizes the overused Florence Nightingale effect (a trope where a war soldier falls in love with their caretaker) and solely focuses its narrative on a single American war hero, Gibson still manages to craft a compelling film...
“Weiner” is a 2016 documentary directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg about Anthony Weiner’s turbulent run for New York City mayor in 2013. For those unfamiliar with Weiner (as I was prior to watching the film’s trailer), rest assured that “Weiner” provides plenty of information on its subject. That said, there was never a point in the film...
Being a racial minority is not easy. Aside from a lack of representation, seeing your culture appropriated and your voice interpreted as either for or against the state (e.g. Colin Kaepernick) can make you wonder if your voice is valued as a minority. All too often the black artistic voice is either silenced or used to appropriate black culture,...
You might remember your typical spelling bee competitions from elementary school. You would stand up in front of a microphone, be given a word and then you would have to spell it out and hope you spell it right. Simple, right? Well maybe not for the characters who appear in, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a play...
Chicago hip-hop artist and independent music producer Lance Skiiiwalker, recently debuted his first full-length album, “Introverted Intuition,” through Los Angeles-based hip-hop label Top Dawg Entertainment, the same record label which boasts Kendrick Lamar along with many others. This explosive 35-minute album is too experimental for its own good and leaned toward more lengthy intermissions than songs to jam out...
For most millennials, DJs are pretty standard fare, and in the world of music, practically ubiquitous. However, while DJs are practically ubiquitous now, the reality is that there was a complex musical evolution which led to the rise of DJs in the music industry, and on Thursday, Nov. 3, DJ Lynnee Denise gave a lecture exploring the rise of...
Artist: Solmaz Sharif
Iranian-American poet Solmaz Sharif’s debut volume of poems, “LOOK” is among the prestigious finalists for the American Book Award. These poems are moving forays into the nature of words, war and the human element caught in between. Sharif explores how words shape how war buries guilt through language, and codes atrocities through layers of jargon and terms....
Detroit-based rapper Danny Brown is one of the most unique voices in contemporary hip-hop and his latest project, “Atrocity Exhibition,” is one of the most brilliant, thought-provoking albums of the year.
The eclectic artist’s main source of inspiration for this record is the leading track off of Joy Division’s second and final album, “Closer.” The song, “Atrocity Exhibition,” functioned as...
Acapella music isn’t something people listen to on a regular basis, partially because they’ve probably never listened to Pentatonix. Pentatonix is five-person Grammy Award-winning acapella group who recently released a new Christmas album titled, “A Pentatonix Christmas.” Pentatonix changed the game by infusing pop music into the traditional acapella sound. Their new Christmas album is a testament to exactly...