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Black Angels herald return of psychedelia

By Hanna Grene | April 16

Psychedelia had not seen the sun in years. It had been locked in the basement of rock 'n' roll, gathering dust since 1968 - until someone let it loose to wreak havoc. Psychedelic rock is back with a force, bringing the world a bit of color, some great guitar work and another look into psychedelic drugs.

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News

DPA dancers present 'Worlds of Motion'

By Danielle Lowe | April 16

What happens when you string space, time, music and abstract movement together? You get, as Vladimir Angelov said, "the DNA of movement." On Friday, "Worlds in Motion" conquered the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre. The event featured eight works from three different choreographers and included different media, narratives and age levels.

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News

'Set' illuminates harsh reality of TV

By Donny T Sheldon | April 16

As a recurring director for the ill-fated series "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared," Jake Kasdan knows how it feels to sacrifice his creative vision to the will of a consumer-hungry media conglomerate. In his first film since "Orange County," Kasdan returns with a wildly entertaining satire of the grueling process television pilots endure, from the casting period to being acquired by a network.

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News

Mechanicals garner laughs, empathy

By Ruben Luong | April 16

Amid the tireless yearning, misguided brawls and tangles of unsuspecting love in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night: or what you will," the cast of Rude Mechanicals delivered a humorous performance last weekend in the Tavern, marked by occasional prancing, drunken stupors and a plot braided with amusing farce.

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News

Music notes

April 16

All Out War "Assassins in the House of God" (Victory) Sounds Like: A fistfight between the psychotic thrash of Slayer and the street-level stomp of classic New York hardcore. Also known as metalcore without the fancy haircuts, girl-pants and eyeliner. Grade: B Sometimes all a band needs in order to deliver its mission statement is a really accurate name, like All Out War.

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News

America oversweetened with sugar substitutes

By Benjamin Lozovsky | April 16

Sometimes I have dreams, simple aspirations that appear surprisingly translucent and pristine in a clouded mind perpetually stuck in a sky-darkening and bone-drenching monsoon. These notions, these hopeful premonitions, they are rapidly identifiable and always intriguing enough to at least peruse.

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News

Tarantino, Rodriguez team up for 'Grindhouse'

April 12

If the trailers didn't make it obvious already, "Grindhouse" is not for the squeamish. The new film, a double feature by Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City") and Quentin Tarantino ("Kill Bill") aims to capture and repurpose the energy of the gore-filled B-movies the directors watched as kids, and in this endeavor, they are successful.

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News

Strokes guitarist gently rocks in a solo show

April 12

"Free from it all," Albert Hammond Jr. sang to a packed early show crowd at the 9:30 club last Friday. Intended or not, it's a metaphor for the liberated sound of The Strokes guitarist's first solo album. The Strokes burst onto the rock scene with "Last Nite" and other popular singles from 2001's "Is This It?" but since then have faded into the background.

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News

'Aqua Teen' movie provides answers, humor

By Todd Matthy | April 12

Men will destroy the world in a harebrained scheme to impress girls, or at least Master Shake will. That's the idea behind "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Colon Movie Film for Theaters," starring the beloved cartoon characters Frylock, Meatwad, the aforementioned Master Shake and their neighbor, Carl.

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News

Blood Brothers delight devoted D.C. fans

By Cameron Conway | April 12

The Blood Brothers ravaged the Black Cat last Wednesday night, proving that good music doesn't go out of style. Openers Chinese Stars and Celebration were interesting and frustrating, respectfully. Chinese Stars features members of the disbanded underground act Six Finger Satellite, and while the band is certainly evocative of the discordant and catchy atonal guitar sounds of SFS, its guitar tones are more encrusted with Blood Brothers-style filth as opposed to the electronica-disco sheen of SFS.

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News

Fast-food provides fast track to post-Soviet normality

By Jeff Lambert | April 12

The other night I caved. I fell asleep on the streetcar and missed my stop, and when I woke up, there it was - its golden arches shining through the Zagreb evening like the fleece on the mast of the Argo. I'd only ventured into a McDonald's once since coming to study in the former Yugoslavia.

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News

Superstitions fail to prevent the inevitable

By Blair Bryant Nichols | April 12

To say I grew up in a superstitious home might be a bit of an overstatement. No, my mother didn't pray before a shrine to the Virgin Mary, construct altars to deceased relatives, bless new household items with holy water, or adhere to any number of customs that are associated with Catholics.

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News

Scooters offer thrifty ride

By Kara Newhouse | April 12

What's hip, saves commuter students tons of money and has two wheels? Motorized scooters, of course, and students who don't ride them could be spending hundreds more than they need to each year. "Scooters are considered bicycles when it comes to the parking policy," according to Christian Noll, AU transportation operations coordinator.

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News

National Opera updates classic 'Die WalkÂre'

By Barron John Weyerhaeuser | April 12

A busty, helmet-clad warrior maiden, blond braids swinging behind her, belts the Valkyrie battle cry. This seminal scene, repeated in Bugs Bunny cartoons and throughout popular culture, occurs near the climax of Richard Wagner's epic opera, "Die Walkre." The Washington National Opera's new production, in conjunction with the San Francisco Opera, the second of four operas in Wagner's "Ring" cycle, takes a brave new look at the classic German tale.

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News

Deceptively simple post-rockers delight

By Cameron Conway | April 5

Do Make Say Think needs no opener, as Sunday's concert proved, opening with only a few songs by the band's own producer. Brood, previously scheduled to play had canceled, but the Canadian band which killed his time slot prevailed. Do Make Say Think is a special kind of band, in the way that it appears to be incredibly deceiving.

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News

Murphy shakes up film with passionate acting

By John Grooms | April 5

"'Twas hard the woeful words to frame to break the ties that bound us But harder still to bear the shame of foreign chains around us And so I said, 'The mountain glen I'll seek at morning early And join the bold united men,' while soft winds shake the barley.

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News

Candid camera captures college

By Blair Bryant Nichols | April 5

I got my first digital camera when I was in high school. I was 16, and like early cell phones, it seemed to weigh 47 pounds. Often it was easier to carry disposable cameras around than to worry about losing or breaking my camera, which in hindsight seems as old as it was heavy.

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