The original Guided By Voices lineup has at last reunited for the first time in 15 years, and with the release of Let’s Go Eat The Factory comes the return of their iconic lo-fi, garage band sound. Starting with the electrifying opener “Laundry and Lasers,” it’s clear that lead singer[Read More…]

John K. Samson has penned some impressive lyrics as the frontman for beloved folk-rockers the Weakerthans, but none may better capture the heart of his music than the simple refrain of “I hate Winnipeg.” It’s the half-joking lyrical crux of 2003’s “One Great City!” a song about Samson’s love-hate relationship[Read More…]

January doldrums got you down? Take a look some of the Tribune A&E contributors’ favorite winter pick-me-ups.  Azealia Banks feat. Lazy Jay: “212” Off-kilter delivery and confident lyrics make Azealia Banks rap’s most exciting star to watch this year. Take a seat, Nicki Minaj. Split Enz: “I See Red” Because[Read More…]

screeninvasion.com   Whether you’ve taken PSYC100 or not, you have heard of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Modern psychology has grown into such a broad field that it’s easy to overlook how it all started: with verbalized thought and a couch. Director David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is the epic[Read More…]

Many of us would define success by how recognizable our face is. Imagine how puppeteers must feel, since their main responsibility is to stay entirely out of their audience’s eyesight. Kevin Clash, the innovator behind the world’s most popular puppet—Elmo—doesn’t seem to mind.  Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey documents Clash’s[Read More…]

Michael Bublé brings class to Christmas classics and Christmas is solid all the way through. It’s got charm, personality, and brings a new, fresh flavour to songs that get overplayed every holiday season. There are elements of jazz, some contemporary pop, a bit of swing, and even some big band-esque[Read More…]

At this point it’s a social obligation to scoff at any Justin Bieber release, but where’s the fun in that? Justin’s lyrical contributions, trite as they are, provide seven original tracks on his new holiday album. The other four are ‘classic’ holiday songs in which Bieber adds miniscule doses of[Read More…]

interviewmagazine.com Jeffrey Eugenides began his new novel, The Marriage Plot, with a single idea: his female protagonist, an English student at Brown University in the early 1980s, is discovering love while the postmodern theorists she reads in her classes are deconstructing the very concept. The book, as he conceived it,[Read More…]

Do you ever feel left out during the holiday season because you don’t celebrate Christmas? Why not cure this alienation with comedy? This was precisely the thought that sparked Kosher Jokes for the Halaladays, a comedy show intended as a Christmas present, if you will, for Jews and Muslims. Featuring[Read More…]

Ryan’s Top Ten Albums of 2011: 10. Adele—21 This isn’t even a guilty pleasure. 21 is a collection of well-written and incredibly catchy, soulful pop songs with lyrics at once intensely personal yet universally relatable. Sometimes it’s just that simple. More pop music like this, please. 9. The Luyas—Too Beautiful to Work The Luyas exist[Read More…]