PULSE the shorthorn entertainment & dining guide thursday, april 14, 2011 | www.theshorthorn.com
Life on Record Bill’s Records celebrates Record Store Day with day of music. Page 6B
A matter of belief Pulitzer prize winning Doubt is Theatre Arts Department’s newest play. Page 4B
Bands on Berry St. Fort Worth indie festival jams with local musicians. Page
3B
Extra Credit Cowboys Dance Hall lets students drop it low on weekly College Night. Page 2B
WWW.COWBOYSDANCEHALL.COM
2540 E. ABRAM ST. ARLINGTON,TX FRIEND US AT COWBOYSCOLLEGENIGHT ON FACEBOOK
college night EVERY THURSDAY
$1500 in CASH
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COWBOYS
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The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
GIVEAWAYS
Bring this ad with your college id for free cover! i93 LIVE IN THE HOUSE
FREE BUS RIDES to & from campus
every 30 min. 10pm-3am @ Greek parking lot
2B
pulse | www.theshorthorn.com
thursday, april 14, 2011
Cowboys Dance Hall hosts College Night every Thursday Event features no cover with college ID, a house band and more BY TORY BARRINGER The Shorthorn staff
Nightlife
Cowboys Dance Hall Arlington N
360
Hyper Crush live at Cowboys
reet
Division St
When: Doors open at 7 p.m. April 28 Cost: $10 advance tickets $15 at the door
Abram Street
UTA
where people can dance and get to know each other. Putting the festivities aside, Torrieri said her favorite part of the Cowboys experience is the warm, inviting atmosphere. “I see a lot of college students, and I see people here who are 60 or 65,� she said. “It’s so cool and so diverse. You never feel like anybody is judging you.�
TORY BARRINGER
Cowboys Dance Hall
Sherry Street
“It’s real fun,� Rausch said. “It’s packed. There’s people everywhere. It’s a really nice dance hall.� Cowboys marketing director Teddy Torrieri said the dance hall strives to keep things fresh while still maintaining its country spirit. She said Cowboys tries to please all its visitors by mixing up the music and offering a little bit for everyone. “We will never lose our honky tonk, our main roots,� Torrieri said. “We put on music for everyone, though. Sometimes you’ll hear something like ‘YMCA,’ and people go crazy over that.� As for the weekly college nights, Torrieri said they are part of an effort by Cowboys to put on a fresh face and connect with all sorts of students from local schools. “It’s being built up really well,� Torrieri said. “We were working with all of the colleges.� Before she started working at Cowboys, Torrieri frequently visited as a patron. She said she always thought of the dance hall as a place
Collins Street
Just as Texans have to battle the stereotype of ten-gallon hats and spurs, Arlington’s Cowboys Dance Hall sometimes has to remind people that it isn’t only for the honkytonk crowd. The dance hall’s weekly College Night party is one of these reminders. Located at Abram Street and Highway 360, Cowboys sees its share of UTA students every night. The hall has a bar and plenty of tables for patrons who want to relax. Visitors in the mood to move can find a place on the large dance floor. Cowboys invites college students to come in every Thursday to enjoy drink specials and start the weekend a little early. Disc jockey Sean Michaels provides the weekly tunes, though Cowboys sometimes brings in live acts to rock the house. Cowboys also has its own house band, Ramblin’ Fever. The country group has a number of fans in Cowboys’ regular crowd.
“I grew up in East Texas, where the only stations were country stations,� art junior Vanessa MoreauSipiere said. “It’s just kind of nice to hear the band’s little renditions that they do with the little changes. It’s nice to go there and relax. It’s like going to a concert, only it’s free.� Moreau-Sipiere started going to Cowboys as a freshman. She said the atmosphere in bars and clubs can sometimes be unappealing, but she finds relaxation by checking out the local music at the dance hall. Ramblin’ Fever contributes to Cowboys’ country atmosphere, but the music doesn’t stop at honky-tonk selections. In addition to the variety of artists that play live, Cowboys hosts events with i93, a local radio station that plays modern pop hits. The dance hall also works with university organizations to host events. One annual tradition is Sigma Chi fraternity’s Fight Night. Criminal justice freshman Travis Rausch said Cowboys was a great venue for the event.
Park Row Drive
360
The Shorthorn: Lorraine Frajkor
Where: 2540 E. Abram St., Arlington College Night Bash When: Every Thursday starting at 7 p.m. Cost: Free cover 18-20 with college ID, Free cover 21+
features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
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Your Weekend
Art, music festival brings more sound to Fort Worth Hemphill Street
West Berry Block Party
N
35W
Biddison Street
Fort Worth
35W
The Shorthorn: Lorraine Frajkor
When: 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday Where: W. Berry St. Cost: $20 Age: 18+
bands for the event. “I’ve played music in San Antonio since I was 13,” he said. “I knew people who weren’t going to cost us too much money, but were still really, really good bands that I thought Fort Worth was going to love seeing. It’s good for everyone to get their name out there.” Hildenbrand said most of the bands are from the metroplex, but there are some acts from San Antonio and Austin. Acts include Green River Ordinance, Nelo and Spoonfed Tribe. Undeclared freshman Kelby Flink said he heard about the event from friends. He said he wants to go because of the music and the charity toward tsunami and earthquake relief. “It sounds fun, all the local music, all the local stages,” he said. “It’s especially good to showcase local music. I applied to play, but they were fully booked. “ Wick said the hardest thing about organizing the festival was having to turn away bands because the event was booked. “Next year, just because of the support we got, we might extend it to two days, or move to a park maybe,” Hildenbrand said. “Next year is just going to be 100 times better.”
ALLEN BALDWIN
Wes Craven takes another stab Be Scene Gas or Pass The same Ghostface plot returns after 11 years for ‘Scream 4’ The Shorthorn Scene editor
Berry Street
McCart Avenue
Fifty bands. five venues, one day. No, it’s not South by Southwest. It’s a new local festival in Fort Worth called the West Berry Block Party. The first annual party starts at 1 p.m. Saturday and runs until 2 a.m. Sunday. The festival takes place on W. Berry St., south of Texas Christian University campus. Venues include The Aardvark, Old Rip’s, The Moon, The Cellar and Stay Wired Coffeehouse. Five TCU students organized the event. Ted Wick, a strategic communications junior at TCU, said he’s been doing music promotion since high school and that this was the next step for him in event coordinating. “It was real easy to convince everyone to do it,” he said. “Everyone was 110 percent helpful. It’s like the puzzle pieces had always been there. They just needed somebody to put them together.” Wick said W. Berry St. was chosen as the location for the event because of its proximity to the TCU and because of the abundance of bars and music venues there. The price for admission is $20 with a portion of proceeds going to Japan’s earthquake and tsunami relief. “We actually have been working on it since January, but then we saw the disaster in Japan and thought it would be a great idea to give back and help them,” Wick said. In addition to 50 bands, the event will feature artwork from local artists. Wick said there will be a parking lot full of paintings and drawings next to Stay Wired Coffeehouse. TCU anthropology junior Travis Hildenbrand said most bands will play 45-minute sets. Hildenbrand, drummer for San Antonio band Collective Dreams, said his connections in San Antonio helped him find
Eighth Avenue
BY ALLEN BALDWIN The Shorthorn staff
Scene It
BY LEE ESCOBEDO
West Berry Block Party Forest Park Boulevard
Party celebrates with bars, bands and beverages
3B Food
www.theshorthorn.com | pulse
thursday, april 14, 2011
features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
Like Nirvana, Goosebumps and “Saved By The Bell”, Scream is part of the ’90s zeitgeist. The series is known for its self-referential humor and pop cultural pulp, but takes the meta-bation to a whole new level in its latest installment, Scream 4. The horror genre is stuck in a sort of perverted perdition. American audiences continue to pay to gaze at slaughterhouse spectacle and slasher smut. At the same time, that’s been the fun part about the Scream series. It’s survived on not taking itself seriously. Throughout its run, the series twists and turns continued to unnerve with inventive deaths and plot devices. Scream 4 finds Craven at the end of that well. The film’s acting core is 11 years older than in the last installment (2000’s Scream 3), which pushed Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers-Riley) and David Arquette (Sheriff Dwight “Dewey” Riley) into
irrelevancy. Sidney is back in Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour and finds a copycat Ghostface killer dead set on rebooting the original killings. Campbell and Arquette appear to be going through the motions when they should be happy to receive work in a profit-generating film. Cox relishes her time on screen, trying too hard at times to still be the baddest b*tch in the room. Once the killings start, familiar tropes appear in the form of possible suspects. Sidney’s aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell) still holds a grudge against her dead sister, and might want revenge. Trevo (Nico Tortorella), boyfriend to Sidney’s cousin Jill (Emma Roberts), manages to be creepier and a worse actor than Skeet Ulrich, as the cheating boyfriend who pops up randomly. While the identity of Ghostface is the focus of the film, the franchise taught us that the person behind the mask matters less than what
Review
Cover Story
Scream 4 Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere Director: Wes Craven Release date: Friday Rating: R Score: Three out of five stars
the mask represents. The white face, reminiscent of painter Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” is a reflection of the paranoia that upsetting the status order brings. Behind Ghostface’s mask lies the fear that everyone tries to ignore, when dealings become cutthroat, whose back will you stab?
LEE ESCOBEDO
features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
Advanced Bariatric Surgery
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4B
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thursday, april 14, 2011
There’s no ‘Do
Scene It
Food
BeTheater Scene Arts stages the award Gas orDepartment Pass of Cover Story
Review
Watch it Dates and times: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday 2:30 p.m. Sunday Location: Mainstage Theatre, Fine Arts Building Room 174 Tickets: $10 for general public $7 for students, senior citizens, faculty and staff Contact: UTA Theatre Arts Box Office at 817-272-2669
By Tesia KwarTeng The Shorthorn staff
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
Theatre arts junior Kathryn Ivey rehearses her role as Sister James April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
The cast of Doubt rehearse a scene together April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
When the final curtain draws Sunday at the Mainstage Theatre, three graduating seniors will exit the stage that molded them into starring actors. The Theatre Arts Department’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt starts today at the Fine Arts Building Mainstage Theatre. The plot takes place in 1964 at a Catholic school in the Bronx. Controversy surrounds a principal who suspects the priest is abusing a black student. Theatre arts senior Stephen Howell described his character, Father Flynn, who is accused of molestation, as the model of a caring parish priest. To prepare for the role, he first researched both the Catholic church of the mid-1960s, as well as the responsibilities and expectations of a parish priest. “Then over time, through both discussions with our director and trial and error on stage, I crafted the essence of Father Brendan Flynn’s character,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, any actor makes a character his or her own automatically through ingraining bits of his or herself. Besides that, ownership
Theater arts senior Stephen Howell acts out a church sermon for the theater production is all in the details, the gestures, the subtle glances and the movements of a character.” A director since 1991, Natalie Gaupp, theatre arts senior lecturer, will be directing this Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play. In 2000, she began working at UTA and has directed William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.
“My personal objective for the play is that I very much want to highlight the gender inequity between the power that Father Flynn holds in the Catholic church, and the power that Sister Aloysius holds in the Catholic church,” she said. The confident, no-nonsense principal, Sister Aloysius, will be played by theatre arts senior Tonya Free, who said she enjoys theater because it’s one
“I build upon those feelings and traits and create a complete
Tonya
theater a
www.theshorthorn.com | pulse
thursday, april 14, 2011
5B
oubt’ about it
d-winning play with three graduating seniors
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
(From left) Theatre arts seniors Camialle Wesley and Tonya Free practice their roles for the theater production of Doubt April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
Theatre arts senior Tonya Free, left, rehearses the final scene in the theater production of Doubt with theatre arts junior Kathryn Ivey April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
n of Doubt April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
of the few things that you can make your own. “You rock the house or crash and burn, and you have no one to blame but yourself,” she said. “It’s very motivating, and I plan to do it until my last breath.” In preparing for roles, Free said she tries to take the character and relate to them on a fundamental level. “I build upon those feelings and
traits and create a complete character, and begin to let that live and breathe on stage,” she said. “The action between Flynn and Aloysius is riveting.” Adding to the action is Camialle Wesley, theatre arts senior who is playing Mrs. Muller, a strong AfricanAmerican woman who allowed her son to be the first black student to attend the Catholic school. Wesley talked to people who lived
e character, and begin to let that live and breathe on stage,”
a Free,
arts senior
during the civil rights era, including her grandmother, to prepare for her role. “I plan on doing my best to show the audience that Mrs. Muller’s character has a whole story of her own,” she said. “You see glimpses of this by the way she carries herself and the significant things she says in the play.” Theatre arts junior Kathryn Ivey portrays the fourth and final character, Sister James. She said she learned to trust her instincts and stay honest to the script from her senior cast mates. “I am over the moon to work with such a great director and awesome cast,” she said. “I am honored to be a part of this production of Doubt.” Howell agreed that Doubt is not your typical show and is a must see. “John Patrick Shanley is an amazing playwright and we are thrilled to act as his voice,” he said.
Tesia KwarTeng features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
The Shorthorn: Allyson Kaler
Theatre arts senior Camialle Wesley performs in a scene as Mrs. Muller, a mother arguing over her son’s well-being in a Catholic school, April 7 at the Mainstage Theatre.
pulse | www.theshorthorn.com
thursday, april 14, 2011
Songs in the key of life
Bill’s Records commemorates Record Store Day with seven bands and a lifetime of memories
BY LEE ESCOBEDO
Bill’s Records
The Shorthorn Scene editor
Where: 1317 S. Lamar St. Dallas 75215 Hours of operation: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday 10:30 a.m. to midnight Friday through Saturday Noon to 10 p.m. Sunday N
Lamar
35E
Street 30
30 Bill’s Records
th S tree t
It’s easy to miss Bill Wisener when you first walk into the store. He’s usually hidden amid a clutter of concert posters, CDs and VHS tapes. Once Wisener sees a customer, he waves while chewing on a lit cigarette. He’s quick to make conversation and in the process, turns strangers into friends. Saturday marks Record Store Day and Dallas’ Bill’s Records will host seven bands, including Austin musician Bob Livingston. Although the store’s yearly celebration usually draws a large crowd, most days the 66-year-old Wisener spends his time fingering through his large collection of memories, as a recordphile fingers through crates, digging for that special one that reminds him of how it once was. “In the ’90s, friends would just come by and hang out for hours,” he said. “They would ask me if it was OK if they could be here without buying anything, and I would never mind because I love being around people.” Wisener said his store has been like a commune since it opened in 1980. “I never planned on opening a music store,” he said. “I wanted to be an architect since before I could read; but I was lost as a youth, and my skills were never cultivated. I got into music because it was something that I, and everybody, love.” Even though Chris Penn’s store Good Records repeatedly wins the Dallas Observer’s annual “Best Records Store Award,” he still views Wisener’s store as the mecca of record stores. “Bill’s Records is a legendary place you always were told to visit in Dallas when going record shopping,” he said. “He always has something you can live without but don’t want to.” Wisener began selling records and memorabilia at the Garland Vikon Village in the ’70s and eventually leased a place on Spring Valley, near Richardson. Wisener and his store moved several times, with the first store at McKinney Avenue and Routh Street. He then moved to Lower Greenville avenue, and finally settled at the current location on South Lamar St. Wisener lives next door to his store at the South Side Lofts but often sleeps in the store, nestled in his chair, amid the records and
Cor in
6B
35E
Dallas
The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt
Bill’s Records owner Bill Wisener will celebrate Record Store Day this Saturday. Wisener has owned his record store for 26 years and hosts a free concert every Saturday night.
tapes he calls home. Until her death in 1996, Wisener lived with his mom, who he called his best friend. “There would be times I would come home after a rough day balancing the books,” he said. “And she would give me that look and say, ‘OK, time for me to bail you out again.’ And she would pull out her check book and write me a check to cover my losses.” When she passed, he went through a time of intense agony and recoil. “I told her, those last months when she was really sick, ‘You can’t leave because I’ve put all of my eggs in one basket,’” he said. Like his store, Wisener endured. The friends he made at the store helped him deal with his mother’s death. One friend in particular changed his life in ways that he’s forever grateful for. “I met Ben Harper one night at the store, and we talked till the sun came up about music and life,” he said. “This was before he really hit the big time, he was a struggling musician and we connected on our mutual love for music.” Wisener hasn’t heard from Harper in a few years but hopes they reconnect in the near future.
The Shorthorn: Lorraine Frajkor
Record Store Day performances Starts at 3:15 p.m. Saturday Lineup: Bob Livingston, Taylor Davis, CC Cross, Joseph Miller, Spencer Shelton, Mr. Troll and Lennon Page
The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt
Bill’s Records is one of the last remaining record stores in Dallas. Bill’s Records has seen some famous musicians come into the store in the past. Radiohead bought records before a show at Fair Park, and Elliott Smith, LeAnn Rimes and Robert Van Winkle, or Vanilla Ice, would visit the store as teenagers. Wisener has made impacts of his own. Former employee Jeffery Liles credits himself as Wisener’s best friend and made a documentary, The Last Record Store. The film screened at the Angelika Dallas and
featured candid moments of the employees and Wisener. “In the ’80s and ’90s, Bill’s Records was the epicenter of alternative music in D-FW,” Liles said. “There has never been a day when Bill’s Records was open when he wasn’t behind the counter.” Today, the store’s liveliest days are Saturdays, when Wisener and radio station KHYI 95.3 hosts musicians at the stage erected in the back. Most of the performers are
local, but some of the more notable acts have been Tripping Daisy, Erykah Badu, Weezer, Daniel Johnston and Wisener’s personal favorite, Ben Harper. Wisener said he doesn’t drown himself in nostalgia. He looks forward to the future and enjoys, despite a drop in business, the comfort he has with his life. Throughout the day, however, his mind returns to years before when the store was bustling with people and music, and his mother was still around to greet him when he went home. Most of all, Wisener said he just wants his friends, famous and nonfamous, to remember him. “There’s a scene in one of my favorite films, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, where the poet tells a young admirer, not to forget him,” he said. “That’s my wish. Don’t forget me.”
LEE ESCOBEDO
features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
www.theshorthorn.com | pulse
thursday, april 14, 2011
Pulse’s guide to arts and entertainment in the Metroplex this weekend. If you know of a cool Arlington event, let us know at features-editor. shorthorn@uta.edu.
Movies Miral Directed By: Julian Schnabel Starring: Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass and Willem Defoe Rated: NR When: Friday Where: The Angelika 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane Dallas 75206 Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Rula Jebreal, Julian Schnabel’s Miral is a poignant and powerful drama that chronicles nearly four decades of change in the Middle East, told entirely from the unique perspective of a young Palestinian girl named Miral. – Official website Cost: $10 Scream 4 Directed By: Wes Craven Starring: Neve Campbell, Emma Roberts, David Arquette and Courteney Cox
Rated: R When: Friday Where: Wide Release Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, and her cousin Jill and aunt Kate. Unfortunately Sidney’s appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town in danger. – Official website Cost: Varies
The Conspirator Directed By: Robert Redford Starring: Robin Wright Penn, James McAvoy and Tom Wilkinson Rated: PG-13 When: Friday Where: The Angelika 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane Dallas 75206 A riveting thriller, The Conspirator tells the powerful story of a woman who would do anything to protect her family and the man who risked everything to save her. In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the president, vice president, and secretary of state. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Wright) owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell) and oth-
Starring: Mikael Persbrandt, Wil Johnson and Eddy Kimani Rated: R When: Friday Where: The Angelika 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane Dallas 75206 Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. – Official website Cost: $10
ers met and planned the simultaneous attacks. - Official website Cost: $10
Vidal Sassoon: The Movie Directed By: Craig Teper Starring: Mary Quant, Ronnie Sassoon and Vidal Sassoon Rated: PG When: Thursday Where: The Angelika 5321 E. Mockingbird Lane Dallas 75206 The idea for the film started off as a personal tribute to him as he was approaching his 80th birthday, and then it grew into a major initiative to capture this man’s life both in a film and a book. My intention was to leave a lasting memory of him that would inspire young people and re-inspire the older generation of hairdressers, as well as the millions of people in the world to whom the name Vidal Sassoon is either familiar or personal or evocative. Due to the fact that hairdressing’s impact on society has not been very well documented or recorded, much less respected because of the lack of any serious written material, I am hoping that this is something that every hairdresser in the world will want to share with everyone they know. - Producer Michael Gordon Cost: $10
Courtesy: AP Photo/20th Century Fox
Raphael, voiced by George Lopez, Blu, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, and Jewel, voiced by Anne Hathaway, are shown in a scene from Rio.
In A Better World Directed By: Susanne Bier
Rio Directed By: Carlos Saldanha Starring: George Lopez, Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway Rated: PG
PUB & GRUB Caves Lounge
Events The 26th annual Main Street Fort worth Arts Festival When: 10 a.m. today Where: Sundance Square 312 Houston St. Fort Worth 76102 The 26th annual Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival (The third largest arts festival in the U.S.) lines the historic red bricks of Main Street, creating a “magnificent mile” of visual art booths, performance stages and intriguing characters. More than 200 juried artists, along with thousands of dancers, performance artists, exhibitors, food vendors, art lovers and musicians. The event is also Fort Worth’s largest music festival. - Official website Cost: Free Contact: 817-339-7777 Stockyards Championship Rodeo When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: Cowtown Coliseum 121 E. Exchange Ave. Fort Worth 76107 Cost: $15 - $20 Contact: 817-625-1025
A calendar of area food & drink specials for April 14-20
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
KARAOKE NIGHT
$3 Stella Artois $3 Bombshell Blondes
$2.00 Domestic Drafts
$2.00 Osbakkens
$2.75 TALL domestic drafts
$2.50 KickassCANS
Any double martini $6.50
$5.00 double Long Division Iced Tea
$3.00 Jägers & Rumpels
$3.75 TALL premium drafts
75¢ well drinks start at 9:30pm $1.50 wells 11pm to close DJ Bilal spins @ 10pm
$1.50 domestic drafts $2.50 premium drafts $4 Jäger Bombs
Little O’s Patio Grill
College Night (9-close) Girls Night Out (8-Close) Live music on the patio check littleospatio.com Open from 12-10pm $2 Drafts & $3 Bombers $2 Cosmos & Margaritas. for band schedule. serving lunch and Open 11:30-2am dinner Open 11:30PM -2:30AM serving lunch and dinner.
http://www.littleospatio.com/
When: Friday Where: Wide Release From the makers of Ice Age comes Rio, a story about taking a walk on the wild side. - Official website Cost: $10
THURSDAY (817) 460-5510 900 W Division St Arlington, TX 76012
4650 Little Road Arlington, TX 76017 (817) 561-0000
7B
Closed
Happy Hour (3-8) $2 domestics $2.50 Wells 1/2 Price Appetizers (8-Close) $3 You Call its
$4.00 PremiumCANS $3.00 Monopolowa vodka
Working Women’s Wednesday (5-7) $1 Margaritas $1 Domestics $2 Appetizers
8B
Concert Corner pulse | www.theshorthorn.com
thursday, april 14, 2011
Your‘The Weekend Family Sign’
is aScene gritty album filled Food It with life’s tragedies Underrated rapper proves hip-hop Be Scene Gas or Pass still has something to offer By Lee escoBedo
Cover Story
The Shorthorn Scene editor
Recently, rap has birthed b-boys more interested in conspicuous consumption than literary lyrics. On paper, hip-hop duo Atmosphere, comprising lyricist Slug and producer Ant, have been ahead of the curve musically but reluctant to be hip-hop’s saviors. The Family Sign will be the group’s first full-length album since 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. On this album, Slug kicks an empty beer can through the dark alleys of his tortured mind. “The Last to Say” finds the poet tracing domestic violence, pleading for the victim to heed his advice to leave. Slug eulogizes with, “You can’t hold hands when they make fists.” Pianos replace 808 drum machines, with Slug spitting saliva over minimal, fuzzy beats that allow him to deliver his monologues without interference. It’s difficult to criticize a group that’s bold enough to do something antithetical to its genre. The group should be applauded for choosing the middle finger as its gang sign during a decade that has hip-hop resembling a minstrel show instead of a riot. Some songs are more interesting than others. On “Became,” Slug narrates a creepy tale about a girlfriend leaving a campsite and being followed by wolves, only to have her tracks replaced with a new pair of wolf tracks. It’s a clever metaphor for never knowing the truth about the person you’re sleeping with. “Just For Show” is accessible, with a poppy, groovy beat and deals with unrequited love but sorely lacks Slug’s trademark philosophical pondering. Slug has been honest about his sex and alcohol addictions.
Review The Family Sign
Artist: Atmosphere Label: Rhymesayers Rating: Five out of five stars
At times, listening to the album can feel like the morning after a binge of both. This is an album that should be presented as a book of poems more than a rap album. The problem is people want sloppy 80-second sound bites. Rap tracks have to be big, loud and pleasurable. The Family Sign is crafted as a minimal, lyrical album that serves as a confessional for Slug’s dungeon of doomed thoughts. For better or worse, the record doesn’t break the group’s continuing theme of nihilism and despair. To complain about Atmosphere’s bleak style is akin to watching a David Cronenberg film and complaining about the realistic violence. Commercialism has overtaken commentary. For those who don’t have the patience for Atmosphere’s newest, there’s plenty of juking and jiving taking place “In da Club.”
Lee escoBedo
features-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu