When a fellow music-loving friend first introduced me to Alabama Shakes last year, I was astonished by the voice exuding from frontwoman Brittany Howard’s mouth. And when the group performed on “Saturday Night Live” in February, the amazement continued.
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A guitar-less rocker seems like a complete oxymoron. Half of the definition of rock comes from the heavy presence of electric guitar, but Crash Kings has completely done away with guitar—and on purpose, too. The Los Angeles band is by no means the pioneer in removing the guitar from the rock equation.
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The gawky, green monster, Mike Wazowski, and his hulking best friend, James B. Sullivan, are back on the big screen, but this time, Pixar’s beloved characters are younger and just about to meet. “Monsters University,” the prequel to 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.
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The Emerald City has made a detour in the Columbus and brought with it a lion, a determined fighter and an unnaturally green flair (Oh my!). The enchanting story of the musical “Wicked” provides a preface to “The Wizard of Oz,” and it makes the Wicked Witch of the West seem like a noble heroine, and Dorothy, merely a girl who came in and gallivanted around Oz.
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With its Columbus show Saturday night, The National reinforced fans' love for the band with their balmy chords and melancholy lyrics crooned by frontman Matt Berninger’s deep baritone. A beautiful summer night set the scene for the Next @ Wex Fest held at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion’s outdoor venue.
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Many women dread falling into the classification of “spinster.” But a web series set to premiere in Columbus is making light of the situation.
“2 Hopeful Spinsters” is a web series about two women who have passed the traditional average age for marrying, and showcase two women who are "30-somethings." Through comedy, it explores and satirizes the stereotypes they encounter during this phase of their lives.
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“Damage” is proof that the members of Jimmy Eat World are still seemingly good guys. They are still the pop middle ground between punk and emo that rose to popularity in the mid and late '90s. They are just nice.
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When Australian band Atlas Genius was busy studying for Fall 2011 midterms as full-time students, the world was busy discovering the group. The success they received from their first single "Trojans" came unexpectedly. “We released that song, the first one that we finished basically, and we didn’t expect anyone to really hear the song,” said vocalist and guitarist Keith Jeffery.
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Too many chefs in the kitchen can spoil the broth. For some reason there is an age old saying that too much talent can ruin things. Too many leaders and not enough workers. Super groups through the ages usually have been no exception, yet with its sixth studio album, “...Like Clockwork,” Queens of the Stone Age seem to have pushed that stereotype away, or at least for the time being.
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Megadeth is Megadead. This is not Megadeth. The Megadeth I know is like a shot of molten lava to the eardrum. The Megadeth I know could wake up a coma patient before proceeding to mercilessly melt his face off. No, the band's new album, released Tuesday, is something else entirely.
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As evidenced by last night’s episode, the classic dichotomy of good over evil is not a standard held by George R.R. Martin, the author of the books behind “Game of Thrones.” In “The Rains of Castamere,” the Red Wedding, as many readers coined the Stark slaughter, plays out to the expectation of those familiar with the books and to the horror of everybody else.
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If you have not watched the first three seasons of this Fox Network show which aired from 2003-2006 and has been available on DVD, Netflix and Hulu Plus for years, watch all 53 episodes right now. “Arrested Development” earned Emmys and was lauded by critics while it was on the air, but could not get an audience to last on television.
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The “Saturday Night Live” stage will soon have two pairs of big shoes in need of filling. Word broke Sunday that longtime head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor for “SNL” Seth Meyers was set to leave the show in order to take over for Jimmy Fallon as the host of NBC’s “Late Night.
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During spring break of his sophomore year at Ohio State, Mike Newman picked up a video camera to film his partying friends. Newman hasn’t put down the camera since, and changed his major to media production to pursue a career as a filmmaker. An avid OSU football fan, Newman sprung an idea to fuse these two loves into one project by making his own documentary titled “Nuts: The Best Damn Fans In The Land.
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This week's episode of "Game of Thrones," "Second Sons," introduces a new character and contains some excellent acting by Peter Dinklage. It's about average for the season. The episode begins with the Hound (Rory McCann) taking Arya (Maisie Williams) to The Twins, where he plans to ransom her to her family.
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The lyrics “Scream until your lungs give out,” from Fall Out Boy’s “This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race,” pretty much summed up the behavior encouraged at the band’s Columbus show.
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Columbus is set to see the flavors of different parts of the world when citizens of three different countries perform onstage together as Brett Newski and the Corruption. “Our bass player is Canadian, our drummer is British, and I’m from Milwaukee, so we all grew up listening to different music in different areas,” said Brett Newski, lead vocalist and guitarist of the band.
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It’s easy to be infatuated with Taylor Swift. There’s a bubblegum pop, girl-next-door aura about her that makes you smile when she smiles. When she took the stage at Nationwide Arena Wednesday night, some 14,000 people were mesmerized by her, and in turn she was struck by them.
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If there was a Mount Rushmore dedicated to the college experience, there would be a giant slice of pizza carved into the side of a granite mountain somewhere. It’s as ingrained into the college culture as anything (yes, even cheap beer). Crust, cheese and sauce — when properly proportioned, cultivated and seasoned — can make even the most pretentious taste buds sing.
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Josh Wolf is a man of many talents: comedian, storyteller, father and now author. The “Chelsea Lately” cast member has recently released his first book and is embarking on a nationwide tour. “The book is about a time in my life where I had met a woman who had two kids, we had a kid together, we ended up parting ways and I kept all three kids,” he said about his book, “It Takes Balls: Dating Single Moms and Other Confessions from an Unprepared Single Dad.
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Yuna is essentially the Malaysian version of Fiest with the soulful tone of Lianne La Havas, but with a slightly airier quality. After gaining popularity on MySpace (of all forums), the singer-songwriter, whose real name is Yunalis Zarai, was signed with FADER Label and received help from producer Pharrell Williams.
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The opening credits in "Game of Thrones" episodes previously showed where things were happening, but that trend has been broken in recent episodes. Oh, sure, the Wall has come to stand for all events north of it, and Winterfell represents Bran and Rickon's storyline, but that doesn't explain why the slaver city of Yunkai appeared in the sequence when Daenerys did not appear in the episode.
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Winter has yet to come upon the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, but the third season of “Game of Thrones” came to an end Sunday night. In stark contrast to last week’s "Red Wedding," “Mhysa” spared more lives than claimed and replaced some of the viewers’ security that was hacked alongside the demise of the Stark regime.
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For many dedicated fans, the very fact that Alice in Chains chose to reform the band without founding member and lead singer Layne Staley was as close as it comes to musical blasphemy. Staley seemed to be the core behind the tortured antics of the group, and it only seemed logical that post Staley's death in 2002, the group would disband. Alice in Chains had already been on an informal hiatus before Staley's death because his drug addiction and health had made it nearly impossible to formally tour, so a true breakup was next on the bill. Right?
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First off, I never saw most of “The Hangover Part II.” It looked like a terrible, money-minded exploitation of a truly unique and awesome comedy. And from the thirty-or-so minutes of it I did see at a friend’s house, it seems I was not mistaken. I was, however, interested in how they would cap off the franchise, since I figured that these clearly talented filmmakers would want to do the series justice with a good final chapter.
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The sun dropped below the horizon in the distance. A man in a Spiderman costume crowd-surfed across an enthusiastic audience and Robin Zander cooed his famous six words: “I want you to want me.” Six words that continue to dominate classic rock radio stations and that made Zander’s band, Cheap Trick, famous after the song’s debut in 1977.
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The seventh episode of "Game of Thrones," "The Bear and the Maiden Fair," has some highlights, but overall the episode is much like the fifth, continuing a plot through necessary storytelling that somehow fails to hold the viewer's appeal. Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and the wildlings crossed the Wall last episode, but the troubles are only just beginning.
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"Kissed by Fire," the fifth episode of the third season of "Game of Thrones," starts with a bang and keeps on running. Unlike last week's plodding, this week's episode packs plot with a punch. Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann) is afraid of fire, a losing trait when pitted in trial by combat against the flaming sword of Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer).
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Brian Regan didn’t stray from his roots during his Columbus performance, bringing classic jokes into his set that originally made him a king of comedy. “I had some Pop-Tarts this morning,” Regan said to raucous cheers from the audience, who seemed to know exactly where this statement was going.
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Punk band White Lung does more than just make music — it allows its sole male member a sight into the feminine sensibility. “Kenny (William) chose to be in a band with three women and I’m sure sometimes he regrets it, but at the end of the day he’s better for it,” said Mish Way, lead vocalist of White Lung.
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This is part of a weekly series called “Pop Opinions” where The Lantern offers its take on the week’s pop culture news. Rush finally appreciated Canadian rock band Rush has been shafted time and time again, but alas, justice has prevailed. The trio was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and fans may now rejoice.
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Making a horse come to life onstage might seem like an ambitious task, but with a little imagination and an elaborate set of puppets, “War Horse” proves it is possible. The acclaimed play, which earned five Tony Awards in 2011, including Best Play, is scheduled to make its Columbus premiere 8 p.
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