Lambchop Is a Woman 4 Stars Nashville, Tenn., is known these days as a music-making machine that chews up aspiring country artists and spits them out as processed, identical pop products. So there must have been a short circuit the day the machine made Lambchop -- a band that transcends its country- influenced roots to create music that is unclassifiable, guileless and beautiful on Is a Woman.
Read More »Matt Pond PA The Green Fury 3 Stars The experience of listening to Matt Pond PA's The Green Fury leaves one feeling an oddly pleasurable malaise. Matt Pond PA, an indie-pop sextet hailing from Philadelphia, blends various instruments into a muffled melancholy. A layering of guitar, bass, percussion, strings and vibes travels on a unsettling trip through The Green Fury. Sometimes the album seems like a product of a more indie-aggressive version of Coldplay. At others, it's more like a permutation of the The Shins.
Read More »Print this page and fill out the answers of fun pop culture questions. Bring your quiz answers to The Daily Tar Heel office with your name, phone number and e-mail address attached. Sit back and relax, we'll contact you. 1. Name at least five female names that are also in song titles by the group Ben Folds Five. 2. What author coined the term "Generation X"? 3. What was David Duchovny's first television appearance (show and role)?
Read More »"Collateral Damage" 2 Stars Originally postponed for its sensitive content in the wake of Sept. 11, "Collateral Damage" serves up a mediocre plot that should have been canned all together. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this disappointing film as devoted fireman and father Gordon Brewer, whose wife and son are killed in a terrorist bombing. Learning the mysterious character smiling at him just minutes before the explosion was the Colombian nationalist responsible, Brewer immediately wants revenge.
Read More »Before his nearly sold-out show at Memorial Hall, comedian and UNC alumnus Lewis Black shared his anger and his experiences with students studying theater -- a field close to his heart. Returning to his alma mater for his first professional performance at the University, Black spoke to nearly 30 students in the Center for Dramatic Art prior to the show. He recounted his years at UNC and ranted about the demanding nature of show business.
Read More »From the film "Network" came the famous saying: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" This quip is comedian Lewis Black in a nutshell. The oft-enraged Black, a UNC alumnus whose success has garnered him a recurring spot on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," chose Memorial Hall as his place to vent Monday night.
Read More »A typical show at Memorial Hall for two of the major a cappella groups at UNC is a sight to see. A sold-out house of screaming fans awaits the talented musicians, and when the singing starts, the screaming doesn't stop there.
Read More »Deborah Kogan is the sort of person who if a war, a plague and a tornado were all three about to strike in the same place, she would immediately go there. She's also the sort of person who, once there, would face the situation with humor and aplomb, probably take a lover or two and in the end come back with thoughtful stories and amazing photographs documenting what had happened.
Read More »Ken Waldman, the "Alaskan Fiddling Poet," has returned to the Triangle to perform in the area where he took his first fiddling lesson. Waldman, who will perform in Graham Memorial on Tuesday, waited tables at Pyewacket Restaurant while he attended Duke University before finding his fiddling muse. "(After Chapel Hill), I eventually moved to Alaska," he said. "I don't know why I had to go that far, but the moving allowed me a certain perspective; it was a certain quiet."
Read More »The Chemical Brothers Come With Us
Read More »Three Stars What's a great dream sequence without a little music, dancing and spanking? Whatever it is, the directors of "Slackers" couldn't care less in this surprisingly clever film about three friends who cheat their way through college. Devon Sawa, Jason Segel and Michael Maronna star as Dave, Sam and Jeff, three college friends who pull out all the stops to run their biggest cheating scam ever before they graduate. The trio's plans seem to be going off without a hitch until a creepy nerd, Ethan (played by Jason Schwartzman) catches onto their scheme.
Read More »Lewis Black didn't do a lot of acting onstage during his time at UNC. But the 1970 alumnus's college days were undoubtedly spent flaunting his comedic talent, which proved to be a large step in the direction of his final career. Most of Black's performances occurred in his everyday interactions with good friends. Black was a member of Pi Lambda Phi, a fraternity that during the late '60s had a reputation for its progressive activism and affinity for spontaneous revelry. "When that many nuts get together, something is bound to happen," read the Pi Lambda Phi page in the 1968 Yackety Yack.
Read More »After more than 30 years away from his alma mater, comedian Lewis Black is returning to UNC on Feb. 11 for his first on-campus performance. Indeed, Black is back -- and he has plenty to say. Since his graduation in 1970, Black has been furiously ranting about everything that boggles his mind. Best known for his energetic segment "Back in Black," which airs on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Black is revered for his witty criticism and intense diatribes. Black will be bringing all that anger to Memorial Hall.
Read More »Four Stars At the Cave on Friday night, Skott Freedman's one-man performance made the audience members put down their beers and just listen. Seated at a small, rustic-looking piano, the 22-year-old piano prodigy wowed the crowd with graceful and precise fingerwork dominated by rapid, pulsating sequences. All too often, singer/songwriters are extremely musically talented or more adept in their songwriting -- leaving them to compensate for mediocrity at one or the other. But when he began to sing, it was clear that Freedman is an exception to this generalization.
Read More »Lewis Black The White Album
Read More »"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" This grotesque film stars real-life rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as an aged child star and her dependent paralyzed sister. Includes choice moments such as when Baby Jane decides to serve rats for dinner. Digable Planets, Reachin' An absolute essential to anyone's music collection. Smooth jazz-hip-hop-socially-conscious blend by a bunch of early-'90s hipsters who will remain perennially "cool like dat." Joanna Pearson can be reached at jkpearso@email.unc.edu.
Read More »"Ding-a-Ling Less"
Read More »Gordon Stone Band Red Room
Read More »Cake has always been just a bit off-kilter. From enigmatic album titles to a strange mix of the playful and the pensive, the band has never been afraid to shake things up a little. Consider the pig on the cover of their third album, Prolonging the Magic. "McDonald's will have an arch ... so we're sort of going along that line of thought with one simple image, and the pig just seemed to be a strong image at that point and that's how it made it on there," said Vince DiFiore, Cake's trumpeter and keyboardist.
Read More »RALEIGH -- The N.C. Museum of Art kicked off the Frank Capra Film Festival on Friday night by screening "Frank Capra's American Dream," a documentary produced by the influential filmmaker's son. The festival is the part of the art museum's Winter Film Series and consists of six Capra films in addition to the documentary. Capra Jr., president of Screen Gems Studio in Wilmington, presented and answered audience questions. He received extended applause as he walked to the front of the screening room to address the crowd and gave his reasons for making the film.
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