In the face of rampant piracy, record labels have struggled to convince consumers to spend money on music. More specifically, the album format—once the industry’s largest source of revenue—has become too expensive for the average listener. Consumers’ listening habits are increasingly shifting towards faster, more digestible formats like iTunes’ $0.99[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Ludacris — Ludaversal
After going incognito from the music industry for a while, veteran rapper Ludacris has finally reemerged with a bang, with his long awaited album Ludaversal hitting the shelves on March 31. Over the past five years, Luda remained largely committed to Hollywood, appearing in The Fast and Furious franchise; yet, his return[Read More…]
Leveling Up
Gamer. For a lot of people, the very word conjures up images of a basement-dwelling creature who feeds on Doritos and Mountain Dew, fears sunlight almost as much as social interaction, and guards the bridges of YouTube comments with a fierce, troll-like rage. Given the years of controversy video games[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Dark undertones
“Chainsaw” Artist: Ramones Album: Ramones Released: February 4, 1976 This song begins with a chainsaw. Jonny Ramone’s heavily distorted, relentless guitar keeps up that chainsaw sound throughout—power chords, power chords, and more power chords—and Joey Ramone’s doo-wop, ooooh-oh-oh vocals don’t even try to disguise the fact that the song is[Read More…]
Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
“I’ve never been behind myself this much,” Los Angeles-based rapper, producer, and Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt said about his second LP, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. However, Earl’s confidence is more self-effacing and anti-social than Kendrick Lamar’s self-love anthem “i” or Drake’s grocery list of achievements[Read More…]
Peer Review: Mountain of Servants
Sometimes, amazing things can be the product of pure chance and timing. This is exactly the case with Daniel Lombroso’s documentary, Mountain of Servants, which documents the Syriacs, a dwindling minority in Eastern Turkey. Lombroso is a U3 Political Science major here at McGill University who grew up in Westchester[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Dark Undertones
Chainsaw Artist: Ramones Album: Ramones Released: February 4, 1976 This song begins with a chainsaw. Jonny Ramone’s heavily distorted, relentless guitar keeps up that chainsaw sound throughout—power chords, power chords, and more power chords—and Joey Ramone’s doo-wop, ooooh-oh-oh vocals don’t even try to disguise the fact that the song is[Read More…]
Redemption Songs
“Why are you bothering to do good for people who have done so much bad?” As the founder of Pros and Cons, a pilot program that gives musical mentorship to prison inmates, Hugh Christopher Brown has put a lot of thought into this question. Ultimately for him, the answer comes[Read More…]
10,000 hours in 84 minutes
Seymour: An Introduction, the new documentary from actor/director Ethan Hawke, focuses on pianist Seymour Bernstein, but it’s really an in-depth look at the search for greatness. Without taking attention away from Bernstein, who’s given a treatment bordering on hagiographic—and deservedly so—the film becomes a guide to those seeking answers to[Read More…]
Album Review: Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar is at his best when he embraces the contradictions that define his life. He is one of the most famous rappers alive, but feels stifled by his culture and his past. He’s outwardly full of bravado and bluster, yet unable to get past his crippling self-doubt. Fame has[Read More…]