Released earlier this year, the Chemical Brothers’ seventh effort, Further, can start to sound like a concert album after a few plays. Unlike many of the Brothers’ earlier releases, the album captures the raw intensity and structureless flow of a live set, filled with unexpected drops, blips, and volume shifts.
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
CD REVIEW: Sweet Thing- Sweet Thing
With their self-titled debut, it’s easy to see that Toronto’s Sweet Thing have Top 40 ambitions. Whether or not they’ll get there remains to be seen. The album certainly contains elements that suggest they will: the punchy guitars of “Gun,” the shimmering synths of “Lazy Susan,” and the soaring vocals of “A Change of Seasons” are all perfectly pop rock enough to satisfy any fan of the genre, but they still have a long way to go.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: CDs – Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP
Dropping out of nowhere this summer, the All Delighted People mega-EP (the thing is 60 minutes long) is Sufjan Stevens’ long-awaited return to song-based material. The EP is an all-encompassing affair and serves as an both an excellent reminder of Stevens’s work to date and a crash-course for the initiated.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Concerts – SSMU Frosh
On Sunday night SSMU froshies were treated to one final night of entertainment, a concert starring Torontonians k-os and Keys N Krates. Keys N Krates featured a drummer, keyboardist, and DJ with a laptop and turntables. The band describes their work as “hands-on remixing,” a style that transforms recognizable riffs and melodies into rave-style mixes.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Concerts – Lollapalooza
Since becoming permanently stationed in Chicago’s Grant Park in 2005, Lollapalooza has consistently delivered two things: impressive lineups and droves of people looking to see said lineups. This year featured hugely popular artists such as Green Day, Lady Gaga, and Arcade Fire alongside only slightly lesser-known but no less awesome acts, including Mumford & Sons, Chromeo and Wolfmother.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Concerts – NXNE 2010
This year’s North by Northeast music festival featured close to 650 bands on over 40 stages throughout Toronto. Often playing second fiddle to the similarly named, but unrelated, South by Southwest festival, 2010 seemed to be NXNE’s coming-of-age. From scoring big-name headliners like Iggy and The Stooges and De La Soul, as well as a good number of up-and-coming buzz bands like Surfer Blood and Avi Buffalo, this year’s line-up demanded attention.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: TV Shows – Jersey Shore 2
This summer’s reality shows lacked complexity, and tended to favour one overblown storyline over a more cohesive selection. Jersey Shore’s Miami revamp is no exception. The silly idea-turned-cultural-phenomenon has primarily focused on the on-again/off-again relationship between last season’s only serious couple: Ronnie and Sammi.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Movies – Scott Pilgrims Vs. The World
This is one of those movies throughout which you chuckle a bunch of times, have a few hearty glances at the person sitting next to you, and basically enjoy thoroughly. But I won’t give it much more than that. It’s a Toronto-based hipster extravaganza about girls who dye their hair, listen to cool bands, and have vegan ex-boyfriends, and guys who barely straddle the line between endearingly awkward and terribly inept.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Movies – Dinner For Schmucks
Dinner for Schmucks seemingly has a lot going for it: a funny premise (based on the French film Le Dîner de cons) and a big-name comedic cast. It turns out that sometimes the sum can be less than its parts. For one thing, most of the movie takes place before the actual “dinner for idiots” where financial executive Tim (Paul Rudd) has to debut successfully in order to finalize a promotion.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Movies – Despicable Me
Despicable Me was touted as Universal’s answer to Pixar’s steady stream of successful, adorable, and quirky animated films including Up, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles. While the style of Despicable Me may resemble that of Pixar, and the characters are of the same eccentric variety, Despicable Me offers a new and interesting story for children and adults with a villain whose sole desire in life is to make others as miserable as he is.
