Ben Kweller + OK Go = an awesome time. And lots of dancing, probably.

Am I the only one who's excited for this year's A&O fall show? OK Go and Ben Kweller definitely beat past shows - I mean, I'd never heard of Jurassic 5 until they came to campus.

And trust me, guys, I've seen OK Go live and they do not disappoint. Though they don't run on treadmills on stage (that would be really hard), they end every show with their original dance to "A Million Ways," which is also awesome.

Fun fact: The guy lipsynching? Not the lead singer. The real lead singer is the lanky guy who walks into the frame at the beginning of the video.

Kweller is a singer-songwriter with some really catchy stuff. Can't say I'm an expert on his stuff, but the buzz on campus makes it seem like many Wildcats are more excited about the opening act than the headliner. And Kweller's no stranger to sweet music videos. Check this one out, for the song "Penny on the Train Track." More silly dancing, but this time straight out of the retirement home.

I want to be like this lady when I grow up.

Interested in the show? It's at Patten Gym, Wednesday December 5th at 7pm. Tickets are $10 at the Norris Box Office. Plus, part of the proceeds go to DM, so you're helping to cure pediatric cancer while enjoying great acts.

Todd Haynes: "Don't understand my movie? Piss off."

I’m Not There is a challenging film, illuminating to Dylan fans and completely impenetrable to those who know nothing about the greatest American songwriter of all-time. The film is a loose biopic of Dylan, jumping across different periods of his life with six different actors playing the singer, most notably Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, and Christian Bale.

Blanchett plays the most recognizable version of Dylan, the electric troubadour that blazed audiences in 1965 and 1966, donned in black shades and a leather jacket while running around England. Bale is the confused folkie breaking his way onto the scene in the early ‘60s and quickly becoming disillusioned with the scene, while Ledger is the successful actor with a troubled family life who gets his start by playing Bale’s character in a movie. Sound confusing? It is. No one’s real names are used in this movie other than Allen Ginsburg – you have to infer that Charlotte Gainsbourg is playing Sara, Dylan’s first wife, and that Julianne Moore is playing Joan Baez, one of his first loves.

Then, some parts are just confusing. Richard Gere plays Billy the Kid (!), the outlaw who is laying low after a showdown with Pat Garrett, the sheriff who chased him. Now, here’s where knowledge of Dylan comes in handy, because Dylanites will recognize these names, as Dylan scored the music to the Sam Peckinpah film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The metaphor is simple: at that point in his life, Dylan was hiding from the spotlight, releasing disappointing albums that seemed phoned-in, much like Billy the Kid is trying not to get found out by Johnny Law. But in the film, Billy eventually has to confront society, much like Dylan did. This only dawned on me ten minutes after the movie ended, and I’m a giant Dylan fan – again, not for the casual fan.

The dialogue is a little clunky at times, and director Todd Haynes somewhat annoyingly romanticizes Dylan at times. It’s clear he greatly reveres Dylan, but lines like, “I know more about you then you’ll ever know about me!” sound canned. There’s also the problem of the movie’s insular nature – if you’re not a Dylan fan, this movie will make no sense to you. That’s got to be a problem.

The best parts about this movie are the opening sequence and the soundtrack. The movie balances Dylan tunes and Dylan covers from the official CD release, with artists from Sonic Youth (check out bassist Kim Gordon making an appearance, by the way) to Cat Power to Stephen Malkmus to the Hold Steady. In one of the movie’s few song sequences, there’s a phenomenal version of “Going to Acapulco” as performed by Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Calexico. It’s better than the original and got me to Borders to try and buy the soundtrack, which I failed to do. Check it out at the myspace for the movie, which you can Google.

If you are a Dylan fan, you should see this movie. If you’re not, then you can see it anyways, but don’t be put off by the references you won’t understand and the songs you don’t know. Just take it as an opportunity to brush up on some Bobby.

Better than: Walk the Line

Worse than: No Direction Home

Student Film of the Week: Robin's Cage

How much control do we have over our own lives? That seems to be the central question in director Tim Aumun’s Robin’s Cage, a collaboration between five students at Juniata College and submitted by Jigar Patel. Aumun seems to be questioning how much freedom we have to script the itinerary of our existence, and whether, in fact, we’ve become such prisoners of routine that we’re as trapped as a robin in a cage, unable to soar.

The film is about a young man named Robin who awakens every morning at the sound of his alarm to undergo the same routine: school, homework, chores. He doesn’t seem to have any genuine human contact; his parents aren’t there to see him off in the morning. His only connection to his mother is through the Post-It Notes and voicemail messages she leaves to tell him what to do. Robin goes to class, and there he encounters a lecture on Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which seems to directly address the imprisonment he’s feeling. Whether he understands the lecture, or whether he’s become so lost in his routine that school has just become a chore and not an enriching experience is uncertain. The latter is more likely, however. Once he leaves school for the day, his mother’s voicemail tells him to pick up some milk, which he purposefully drops on his way back from the store, an act of rebellion against this incessant routine. When he arrives back home he discovers his robin’s cage is open and that his pet is now free, even if he can’t be.

The stylistic techniques that the Juniata College students deploy for the film are unusual but deepen the film’s mysteries. The opening credits and title of the film are written on Post-It Notes, stuck to Robin’s wall. Of course, Post-It Notes are the main method of Robin’s mother decreeing what her son should do and how his routine should unfold. But this unusual approach to revealing the film’s title also recalls Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), where the title is only presented near the very end of the film written across the wall of Kurtz’s (Marlon Brando) compound.

It’s admirable that for a film about psychological frustration Aumun and his Juniata colleagues didn’t resort to cliches of psychological drama like voiceover narration, searing close-ups, or subjective shots. Instead, there is an expressionistic quality to the presentation of the narrative, where the elements of the setting (the post-it notes, the “Are You Sick?” poster at the grocery store, the lecture itself) create a symbolic collage of the factors governing Robin’s attitude and behavior. The setting itself reveals his mental state, while he in fact remains more or less passive and expressionless when we see him. This is a clever method of establishing an authorial voice, bringing a unique and fresh perspective to familiar material.

If good filmmaking should show and not tell, then Robin’s Cage succeeds by presenting its narrative in primarily visual terms. Robin himself may still be a prisoner of his circumstances, but these filmmakers from Juniata College have shown that they don’t feel constrained by the limitations of conventional cinematic technique.

Rockin' in the Free World with Neil Young

How can it be that Neil Young hasn’t made a joke out of himself by now? It seems like every other 70’s rock mainstay, from Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones, has become a parody of themselves, a bunch of geriatrics flopping around on stage, playing their hits to people who never cared about the band when they were still relevant. Even Bob Dylan, one of Young’s singer-songwriter peers, has become even more detached from his audience than he was when he was young, showing up in commercials for Victoria’s Secret and Cadillac, playing unrecognizable versions of his songs in concert, unconcerned with what his fanbase thinks. But Neil Young has stayed eternal, as evidenced in his sold-out show at the Chicago Theatre in downtown Chicago, playing a mix of acoustic and electric songs that ranged from number #1 pop hits to unreleased gems from a rich back catalogue.

Young opened up by his lonesome surrounded by several acoustic guitars and two pianos, dressed simply in a beige jacket and a white buttoned shirt (or maybe not, my memory is hazy). When he started singing, it became obvious that his voice hasn’t deteriorated in forty years of playing – it’s still the same thin, almost-falsetto yowl that he draws out with pained facial expressions. He replaced Jack Nietzsche’s string arrangements on “A Man Needs A Maid” with an electric organ, filling the spacious Chicago Theatre with the stark piano arrangements that accompany “Maid,” one of his most depressing songs. “Harvest,” the underrated gem off the album of the same name, was a pleasant, understated beauty, as was “Journey Through the Past,” most recently featured on his recent archive album, Live At Massey Hall.

It’s often said that the mark of a good song is whether or not it can be stripped down to just a singer and an acoustic guitar. This line of thinking is pretty ludicrous, but Young took “Cowgirl in the Sand,” an eleven-minute guitar jam off his second solo album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and reduced it to a simple acoustic ballad, which worked fine without the layers of guitar fuzz and solos.

After a brief respite, Young came back on stage to play an electric set, somewhat dominated by songs off his most recent album, Chrome Dreams II. Even at his age, Young still jumped around on stage and went wild on guitar – his closing song, “No Hidden Path,” was an insane fifteen-minute epic guitar fest that seemed like improvisation. Young would float out of the song’s rhythm and stab back into the melody with a barrage of guitar daggers, slapping his strings to create a ton of feedback as his band rocked along. It’s a daring song that builds off the feedback-based guitar bands he directly influenced, like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr, that sounded great if not a little excessive (but fifteen-minute songs usually are).

He encored with “Cinnamon Girl,” which still kicks like a bitch almost forty years later, and finished with “Tonight’s the Night,” the chilling requiem for dead roadie Bruce Berry. Young briefly came out at the end to play a few minutes of instrumental music with his band, teasing the audience but ultimately leaving on a high, disappearing to a standing ovation. It should be obvious that I’m a giant Neil Young fan, owning most of his discography and having lost my shit upon finding out he was coming to Chicago, but I’m trying not to turn this into a piece on the hundreds of ways he is great, so just keep this in mind: Neil Young is awesome. He is awesome in concert. If you see him, you will have an awesome time. Awesome.

Set List:

Acoustic
1. From Hank to Hendrix
2. Ambulance Blues
3. Sad Movies
4. Man Needs a Maid
5. No One Seems to Know
6. Harvest
7. Journey Through The Past
8. Mellow My Mind
9. Love Art Blues
10. Love Is A Rose
11. Cowgirl in the Sand
12. Heart of Gold

Electric
13. The Loner
14. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
15. Dirty Old Man
16. Spirit Road
17. Bad Fog of Loneliness
18. Winterlong
19. Oh, Lonesome Me
20. The Believer
21. No Hidden Path

Encore
22. Cinnamon Girl
23. Tonight's the Night II

2nd Encore
24. Sultan

Why The Internet Was Invented: Crank Dat Mashups

If you haven't heard "Crank That Soulja Boy," you clearly have been living under a rock. Or just haven't been around the frat quads lately. For those who are unenlightened, watch this.

Now of course, since it's YouTube, people had to create mashups. Some of the best include Crank Dat Barney, Family Guy, and of course, Superman.
But my latest obsession? Crank Dat Obama.

You know, he dances exactly like I thought he would. Really uncomfortably. But looking at the song he actually danced to, he's not that horrible.

Regardless, it goes to show that Soulja Boy can make anything funny. Even those kids dressed as Teletubbies for Halloween weren't that funny until they came running down my hall with a boom box, doing the Soulja Boy dance.

Best Of The Office: "Branch Wars"

A note before I begin: NBC kind of sucks. Don't freak out, now - I love them for their programming. But they immediately pull any clips from The Office from YouTube, and they just recently shut down their own YouTube page. Which leaves me absolutely no resource to give you Office clips until NBC's fancy new Hulu site launches. Or until they give me access to their beta site. So this recap is going to be picture-filled. Sorry. Moving on.

"Branch Wars" did some smart things, and some stupid things. Now I will list two of each.

Smart Things:

1. Centering the episode around Stanley. Leslie David Baker gets underappreciated a lot on The Office, and this is really unfortunate. In this week's episode, we saw him all the time, as the plot centered around Karen (the new regional manager at Dunder Mifflin's Utica Branch), trying to recruit Stanley to work for her. Of course, Michael can't handle this, because "you can't take away the hilarious black man from the office." Stanley's reaction to this? See the picture on the right. This is typically his reaction to everything.

2) Bringing Karen back the right way. When I saw in promos that Karen was returning, I thought, "Oh, no. This can't be good for Jim and Pam." But you know what? I was really glad to see Rashida Jones again. I was also glad the writers decided to make things not okay with Karen and Jim. Karen definitely has the right to be bitter after the way Jim treated her, and she's getting her revenge by showing off her great new job, and hot new secretary (oh snap, Pam!).

Stupid Things:

1) Those mustaches. How slapstick can The Office get? I really think this is an example of taking things too far. Like Michael driving into the lake because the GPS told him to, or Michael starting the Fun Run. This week? Michael and Dwight trick Jim into driving to Utica to pull the ultimate prank on Karen. Jim is obviously not cool with this, and neither was I. I really did not see the humor in it, except when Dwight tried to pee in an aluminum can, and said "I think I cut my penis on the lid." Gah! Thinking about Dwight's penis is something nobody should ever do. Except Angela, obviously.

2) Not showing us The Finer Things Club sooner! I know I'm kind of cheating with this one, but this is pure genius. The fact that once a month, Pam, Oscar (in "the gayest thing about (him)"), and Toby (who clearly is just in it for quality Pam time) discuss art and literature over finger sandwiches is just too good to be true. Add in the fact that Andy desperately wants to get in because it's "exclusive" just adds to it. Oh, The Office is just like lower school. And that's what I love about it.

The Hold Steady and Art Brut Almost Killed Me

The decision to go see the Hold Steady and Art Brut play at the Metro on Halloween was an impossibly easy one – here at NU, there isn’t much to do on campus if you’re not in a frat and or a girl. So instead of half-assing a costume and cradling a warm can of Natty Ice at Phi Beta Douchebag, I decided to catch a ride in my friend’s car and see two of the best live bands currently playing today.

Before the show, I saw Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos walking around the Metro with his (I presume) girlfriend, decked out in full Elvis costume. As I waved at him (he waved back!) I seemed to be the only one who recognized him, as he strolled past several other concertgoers. I wasn’t sure whether or not it was really him until Art Brut came out to play donned in full costumes, with guitarist Jasper Future dressed up as a Roman centurion, drummer Mikey (From the Block) as a something-or-other (Argos quipped that he saw his silvery costume in the store and said without knowing what it was, “I want to be THAT for Halloween!”), bassist Freddy Feedback as…herself, other guitarist Ian Catskillkin as a spooky skeleton and Argos as (you guessed it) Elvis.

As expected, they started playing AC/DC’s “Back in Black” before segueing into their best song, “Formed A Band,” with a projector displaying some of the song’s lyrics behind them. Argos likes to fill each song up with little leg kicks, microphone twirls, and intense facial expressions – he’s like a fatter version of The Hives’ Pelle Almqvist, who can pull all of that off without looking winded.

Art Brut’s live act is predictable by now – Argos used the same monologue before introducing “Good Weekend” as he did the last two times I saw them play, and with only two albums under their belt (together clocking in at barely over an hour), it’s easy to guess what they’re going to play. However (and most importantly), this does not mean they are boring and easy to figure out – each song is a party, and the band is into audience interaction. What this means is, why ruin a good thing? Art Brut is a must-see band at this point.

As for must-see – talk about the Hold Steady, who has got to be the most anthemic indie band of our generation. They came out decked out in full Mexican western gear, ala “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”. As they launched into the opening chords of “Stuck Between Stations,” the crowd went wild and started jumping up and down while pumping their fists, and the Metro turned into a giant sing-along. And you have to remember, the Hold Steady are supposed to cater to hipsters, who never like to show emotion. But here we were at the Metro with a sold-out crowd chanting the lyrics along to every song. Art Brut has better theatrics, but the Hold Steady just mean more to their fans.

They played every song off last year’s outstanding Boys and Girls in America, a CD full of Randy Newman speak-song with lyrics that combine Bruce Springsteen’s bombast with the youth-voice of The Replacements, epic songs that talk about going to school dances or buying weed for your girlfriend. Frontman Craig Finn worked his way through as many beers as he could, sputtering and twitching across the stage, sometimes barely playing his guitar but always throwing his entire voice into each song.

If Finn had a more palatable voice, the Hold Steady would be a shoo-in to become this generation’s Replacements (which means they’d be recognized by the mainstream a half decade after their prime, which they’ve probably yet to hit) – as they are now, the Hold Steady are the band that means most to their fans in the indie scene, which in an arena full of posturing isn’t that difficult to accomplish.

Track List:
Art Brut
1. Formed A Band
2. Pump Up the Volume
3. Bad Weekend
4. I Will Survive (not a cover!)
5. 18,000 Lira
6. Saint Pauli
7. Modern Art
8. Rusted Guns of Milan
9. My Little Brother
10. Post Soothing Out
11. Emily Kane
12. Nag Nag Nag Nag
13. Direct Hit
14. Good Weekend

The Hold Steady
1. Stuck Between Stations
2. The Swish
3. Chips Ahoy!
4. Hot Soft Light
5. Massive Nights
6. Party Pit
7. Adderall (new song)
8. Barfruit Blues
9. Modesto Is Not That Sweet
10. Same Kooks
11. Chillout Tent
12. You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)
13. Lord, I'm Discouraged (new song)
14. You Can Make Him Like You
15. Your Little Hoodrat Friend
16. Southtown Girls

Encore
17. Citrus
18. First Night
19. Girls Like Status
20. Killer Parties