The Best Hip-Hop of 2013
The hip-hop world has seen a lot this year. Many great independent artists cemented themselves with sophomore releases, Earl Sweatshirt finally released an album and Kanye West, well, Kanye’d all over the place. I listened to most of it, and I liked most of what I heard. 10. Pusha T – “My Name Is My […]
Death Grips Stick to Strengths With Free Album
I’m going to preface this review with the following statement: I don’t really get the indie music community’s obsession with Death Grips. The first time I heard of the Sacramento-based industrial-hip-hop-experiment-group-thing was at the 2012 Coachella Festival. It was the middle of a very long and extremely hot day, and I had just finished an […]
Protest the Hero turns it up a notch with new album
Earlier this year, Canadian progressive metal five-piece Protest the Hero took two big jumps in their career. First, founding member and drummer Moe Carlson left the band in order to pursue higher education, and he was replaced on their next album by Lamb of God’s Chris Adler. Second, said album was completely crowd-funded by an […]
Action Bronson continues his streak
Of all the new rappers who have come out of the so-called “new school” of hip-hop, there are few more unique, in both personality and style, than New York’s Action Bronson. A trained fire-flame chef, Bronson has made quite the name for himself since his 2011 debut. He’s proven himself extremely prolific, with two self-released […]
Thom Smith creates unique electronic music
Though I am a fan of electronic music, I often find myself very frustrated with how much of it sounds the same. I honestly cannot tell the difference between all the dudes in wifebeaters who play dubstep on MTV or the foreign guys in masks that just want to rip off Daft Punk. As a […]
Red Fang a callback to eighties thrash
When I first discovered the bearded, beer guzzling members of Portland’s Red Fang, the first thing that came to mind was their city of origin. At the time, I was in the city visiting my grandparents, and among the hipsters and overcast weather, there were a couple things I was amazed to find. First, a […]
Deap Vally’s delayed, anticipated debut is worth the wait
I first discovered Los Angeles’ garage-blues duo Deap Vally in August, when skimming through a set of photos taken by Spin Magazine at San Francisco’s 2013 Outside Lands Festival. In the set were two photos of Deap Vally in the middle of a song. The first photo shows vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Troy banging out a chord […]
Wacky Rapper Strikes Gold with Seriousness
In the contemporary hip-hop landscape, artists with big personalities and raunchy lyrics are pretty much everywhere. The club “banger” market of pounding bass and encouraging illicit behavior is seemingly endless, and the Internet has provided careers to independent artists such as Trinidad James, Waka Flocka Flame and Chief Keef, and countless DJs who get paid […]
Touché Amoré continue to blur lines of hardcore
In late 1999, Jacob Bannon, artist and frontman of the legendary metal-core band “Converge,” formed Deathwish Inc., an independent record label dedicated to promoting small bands through the classic punk rock DIY method. Most of the label’s releases can be classified as part of the hardcore, punk and heavy metal genres. “Converge” guitarist Kurt Ballou […]
Franz Ferdinand Makes a Worthy Return
The Glaswegian post-punk Franz Ferdinand band members are gods. Their second album, “You Could Have It So Much Better,” was one of the first modern albums that I ever bought myself on vinyl, and they were the primary reason that I attended my first Coachella. The indie-rock band was formed in 2002, and consists of […]
New art exhibit showcases summer memories
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, the Goldman Schwartz art studio presented its new exhibition of student artwork created over the summer of 2013. The paintings (advertised as “new work from home and abroad”) are currently available for viewing in the Goldman Schwartz hallway. The exhibit features all kinds of student pieces, including paintings, sketches, architectural designs, […]
The Underachievers shine on new rap album
In 2011, Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood experienced a musical renaissance. Underground, independent hip-hop groups consisting of young and extremely talented artists released excellent debut mixtapes online, and suddenly, East Coast hip-hop returned to the popular lexicon. That isn’t to say that rappers were not recognized by their geographic origins before this. But for me, there wasn’t […]
Miras project celebrates non-western music
April 22 marked the final major performance by the Middle East Music Ensemble, as part of the Miras Project, directed by Ann Lucas. The all-student ensemble, which included guests Jamal Sinno on the qanun and dancer Erzulie, performed to a group of students, family members and other guests in the Slosberg Center’s main auditorium. The […]
Harvard professor examines the “what” in writing
On April 10, the Mandel Center welcomed Harvard professor and acclaimed literary critic James Wood for the third time that week as a guest lecturer in the Mandel Lectures on the Humanities. In front of an audience consisting mostly of Brandeis faculty and off-campus guests, Wood gave the third lecture in his week-long “Letters to […]
Abstract artist asserts his philosophy on social issues and art
The Rose Art Museum welcomed Los Angeles abstract artist Mark Bradford as a special guest to discuss his process, his inspirations, and to answer student questions on March 19 . A group of students, teachers and off-campus guests gathered downstairs at the Rose in front of one of Bradford’s paintings, which has been housed at […]
Seminal Israeli poet’s work celebrated in new book
Recently, Professor Ilana Szobel (NEJS) published her third book on Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch, “A Poetics in Trauma: The Work of Dahlia Ravikovitch.” Last Tuesday, a group of students, faculty and other guests gathered in the Mandel Center to mark the release. After an introduction by Schusterman Director Ilan Troen, Szobel read from her book […]
