The Fray is back! Just over a year since releasing the commercially-successful Scars & Stories, the alternative rock band from Colorado have returned with their fourth—and ultimately, fairly predictable—studio album, Helios. The first 10 seconds of the opening track “Hold My Hand” are as brilliant as anything they’ve previously released,[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Spring—Celebrations
In listening to Celebrations by Sprïng, a band that self-identifies as a “psychedelic rock band,” it’s hard to determine whether the multifarious tracks are true exemplifications of intelligent prog-rock, or if they’re too distracted and overdone to make a serious impression. Although the latter may be true for the average,[Read More…]
Keeping up with The Americans
*Spoiler alert!* It is unsurprising that in a time when American politics have reached new levels of dysfunction, Hollywood has capitalized on it by pumping out political dramas left, right, and centre. Hit series such as Scandal and House of Cards focus squarely on the inner workings of Washington politics:[Read More…]
Wrong answers are blowing in The Wind Rises
How much responsibility does a filmmaker working from non-fictional material have to accurately represent his subject? It’s a complicated question, and one which muddles the The Wind Rises, an animated biopic that writer-director Hayao Miyazaki re-released with an English cast of voices that replace those in the original Japanese version.[Read More…]
Kanye can’t touch the sky with his ego weighing him down
“I am the next Walt Disney. I am the next Steve Jobs.” When you bring up Kanye West in conversation, you’re likely to be greeted with two very distinct opinions. On one hand, we have the adamant defenders, die hard ‘Yeezies’ who can spend hours attesting to West’s creative brilliance;[Read More…]
Players’ production of Peter Pan forces audiences to grow up
A university is the ideal place to stage the story of a boy who never wants to grow up; few understand the sentiment of wanting to be a little kid and have fun forever better than those of us on the cusp of adulthood. As we stress over midterms, job[Read More…]
William Fitzsimmons—Lions
For the past 10 years or so television has served as a springboard for a number of artists making the leap to wider recognition. It’s been just over seven years since William Fitzsimmons’ “Passion Play” was featured on the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and his sound remains largely the same.[Read More…]
The Lego Movie reminds us that it’s good to be a kid
“Everything is Awesome,” the song heard at the beginning of The Lego Movie, sets the mood for the film right away: it’s fun, hilarious, and unapologetically zany. Remarkably, writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller—known primarily for their work on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street—sustain this[Read More…]
Oscar Predictions
The A&E team takes on four of the prominent categories at next week’s Academy Awards by offering probable predictions and wild card scenarios for each. Best Actor: Bruce Dern — Nebraska Leonardo Di Caprio — The Wolf of Wall Street Chiwetel Ejiofor — 12 Years a Slave Matthew McConaughey —[Read More…]
Sam Roberts Band–Lo-Fantasy
Having released a relatively successful string of EPs and full-length studio efforts, Quebec-based rocker Sam Roberts recently dropped Lo-Fantasy, his fifth album overall, and second since adopting the moniker Sam Roberts Band in 2011. With catchy hooks, brilliant guitar riffs, and sing-along choruses, this album doesn’t stray far from his[Read More…]