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An Etude In Innovation
November 5th, 2009While there is no stereotypical member of Contrapunkt, Cornell’s main outlet for undergraduate composition, Zach Romeo ’10 seems to embody the group strengths. As the group likes to stress, he is an engineer — which should be an anomaly in a group of music majors. However, it isn’t, as Contrapunkt boasts several engineers as well as members from other non-musical majors such as the AEM program. His pieces for piano draw heavily on improvisation, solely because Romeo likes to improvise. Most importantly, Contrapunkt’s upcoming free concert at Barnes Hall this Sunday is Romeo’s first public appearance with his work. Contrapunkt has given him the opportunity to showcase his original work for the first time during his Cornell career. Read More
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Test Spin: Built to Spill
November 5th, 2009For 17 years now, Built to Spill has produced album after album of twisting and turning, multi-layered, experimental rock music for an ever-growing fan base. There Is No Enemy is a high note for the band, whose current sound continues previous records’ trajectory and features a more matured and cultivated style. Read More
Test Spin: Karen O and The Kids
November 5th, 2009“I could use a story … ” So begins the first song titled “Igloo” on the soundtrack for the new movie Where the Wild Things Are. What follows is exactly that — a beautiful, winding and melodic narrative, one that for the most part can stand alone from the film. The soundtrack, by Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O and an enigmatic backing band called The Kids — a collaboration between a children’s choir, members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their indie compatriots Deerhunter and The Raconteurs — is memorable on its own. Read More
Test Spin: Julian Casablancas
November 5th, 2009You might expect the Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas to be a little groggy after awakening from a three-year artistic hibernation, but instead, he calmly brushes the dust off his leather jacket, Casiotone keyboards and mic stand to deliver a punchy and refreshing solo debut with Phrazes for the Young. Infectious energy and meticulously crafted arrangements abound through the 40-minute album as Casablancas pieces together classically catchy compositions, sprawling country waltzes and hypnotic electronic blitzes to create one of the years more engaging releases. Read More
Archived Stories
Beauty is in the Flaws, T-Painful
November 5th, 2009This year’s TIME “100” finalist was nominated for eight Grammy’s in the last two years, has had nine different songs chart on Billboard’s Rhythmic Top 10 and two years ago, in November and December, had seven different singles hit the Billboard Hot 100 list. Can you guess who he is? It’s T-Pain — the man responsible for bringing back the worst type of Auto-Tune. Are the muses mad at us? Was it something we said (or sung)? It’s as if they saw us getting complacent with our talented Winehouses, alternative Radioheads and soulful LaBelles and thought to themselves, “Hey, you know what would be fun? Let’s turn all the great singers into drug addicts, kill the King of Pop and add Auto-Tune into the mix.” Read More
They Sing the Body Electric
November 4th, 2009With their 1930s musical Babes in Arms, composers Rodgers and Hart were certainly aiming to put on a show in the longstanding image of American culture, evoking an innocence and naivety that brings to mind the small town feel of Americana. However, it is doubtful whether they had the danceable, feedback-drenched tunes that reverberated through the wooden walls of Cornell’s Big Red Barn in mind. Instead, the three bands that performed Monday night, Blissed Out, Ho-Ag and Health, boasted the noise and sophistication that is telling of a new America, one that is loud and proud, and in your face. Read More
Boardroom Fashionista
November 4th, 2009My recent incursion into the workforce has rendered me confused as to what exactly constitutes business attire in architecture. With no enforced dress code, the firm I have been working for in the past months continues to surprise me each week, with its similarity to the casualness of a Silicon Valley start-up (though, with the unfortunate exclusion of the free beer, massages and laundry pickup). Read More
Maroon Landing: An Interview with Guitarist James Valentine
November 4th, 2009This Sunday evening, Maroon 5 will journey to Ithaca with Fitz & the Tantrums as part of the band’s Back to School Concerts series. Sun Assistant Managing Editor Jasmine Marcus ’10 interviewed Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine and heard all about the group’s upcoming album, got the scoop on a new video game starring lead singer Adam Levine — and secured a tennis date. Read More
Glimpsing a Life Through a Few Objects
November 3rd, 2009The new Little Black Book exhibit at the Johnson Museum has ushered in the lonely, evocative reality of contemporary artist Peggy Preheim, whose pencilwork, sculpture and photography reflect each other in engaging ways. Preheim employs a diversity of mediums to generate a stylistically unified world that is nostalgic, haunting and as delicate as the lace-fringed Victorian dresses that clothe some of her ceramic-and-glass apparitions. Read More
The Sounds of Salzburg: Mozarteum Stop by Bailey Hall
November 3rd, 2009To not enjoy the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg is to know without a doubt that you just do not like classical music. The orchestra, which is one of Austria’s leading symphony orchestras and was founded in 1841, treated Cornell’s Bailey Hall to a mesmerizing, even glamorous concert on Friday. The musicians emitted an energetic spark and a glittering aura of perfection that not even the New York Philharmonic can match. The concert paid true homage to composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn in an unusually captivating and thrilling manner. Read More