Swedish garage rock band The Hives have released their first full-length album in five years, but don’t stray far from their signature style.
The album, titled “Lex Hives,” is irritatingly hyper-repetitive at times. The opening track, “Come on,” consists only of the lyrics “everybody come on,” sung over a canned track of a cheering crowd. Intended as a pump-up album...
On a cozy island located near New England, 12-year-olds Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop have begun writing letters to one another. On the surface, Sam and Suzy appear to be much like any ordinary child their age living in a small town community. Sam is an intelligent and ingenuitive "Khaki Scout" in a local summer camp, and Suzy is...
Summer 2012 will be jam-packed with exciting movie releases, beginning with “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” on July 22. It looks so shameless that it just might be awesome.
Next comes the highly anticipated “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” starring Keira Knightley and Steve Carell. The tale begins when an asteroid strikes the earth, and a man...
After a two-year hiatus and a vocal chord surgery, John Mayer has returned to the industry with a bang. Mayer’s highly anticipated new album, “Born and Raised,” was released Tuesday, May 22. The album’s 13 tracks seem to show a more innocent and raw form of Mayer’s already soothing, bluesy music.
Mayer, after his controversial interviews with Rolling Stone and...
KUCR continued its highly successful “Comedy Apocalypse” series Wednesday night at the Barn—this time as the “2012 Election Year Political Face-Melt edition.” For the fifth installment of the series, four critically-acclaimed comics were featured, and the audience couldn’t get enough.
While the theme of the evening was political, the performers used a wide range of comedic styles, making for a...
The latest and greatest band to come out of Santa Barbara, Gardens and Villa, played to an enthusiastic crowd at the Barn Wednesday night. The band was the headliner for the highly anticipated “free secret indie concert,” which was not announced publicly until April 24.
The group’s rise has been quick. After leaving their hometown of Santa Barbara (the name...
“The Dictator” is the first feature written by Sacha Baron Cohen that is not focused on one of the personalities that he created on “Da Ali G Show.” Also setting it apart from his former ventures of “Borat” and “Brüno” is the actual format of the film. While his two previous movies ran more like grandiose episodes of a...
Beach House released their fourth album, “Bloom,” on May 15. The dream-pop/indie-rock duo formed in 2004 with Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand. Since, the pair has gained positive feedback from all their albums, but “Bloom” distinguishes itself by exploring new depths while remaining true to their entrancing sound. Driven by keyboard, organ and guitar, the vocals seem to play...
American-Canadian singer and composer Rufus Wainwright has released his latest album, “Out of the Game.” Known for his slow, emotionally-driven tracks, “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” and “Poses,” Wainwright has continued to blur genres between operatic pop, baroque pop and alternative rock. This new album features eccentric melodies like his earlier album, “All Days Are Nights: Song For Lulu” (2010),...
Like every other Tim Burton movie, “Dark Shadows” features charismatic, quirky and energetic characters against a drab, dark and washed out backdrop.
In the film, Burton favorite Johnny Depp is bathed in a gallon of makeup in order to become Barnabas Collins, a 16th century aristocrat who lives in a large mansion and runs a profitable fishing business in the...