April: the most brutal month

April has been quite the month for metal at the Granada. We Came as Romans, the Metal Alliance Tour, and the Decibel Magazine Tour all delivered their quota of shredding riffs, vocals from the gut, and most certainly a breakdown or two. All good things must come to an end though, as the April metal season comes to a close tomorrow night; the good news is, however, that All Shall Perish, The Contortionist, and Fleshgod Apocalypse are seeing the series to a close.

For those not in the know, All Shall Perish is a deathcore perennial, having been active since their 2002 signing with Nuclear Blast Records. If you don’t understand the difference between regular metal and anything with the suffix “-core” on the end, then take a detour to this link and get educated.

Why? Because knowing is half the battle.

ASP’s 2011 release, This is Where it Ends, topped numerous polls for the best metal album of 2011 when MetalSucks surveyed some other musicians on the international scene. If the whole world believing in you isn’t credibility, then I don’t know what is.

The supporting acts for this show are nothing to balk at either. One can never forget two things about metal shows: 1) they will always be far too loud for modest consumption and 2) there are always more bands on the bill. The “other bands” in this case are Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse and Indianapolis’s own The Contortionist.

If All Shall Perish is Budweiser, then Fleshgod Apocalypse is Stella Artois—they’re both lagers, but one is simply classier than the other. In that regard, Fleshgod dwells on a whole different level. Symphonic arrangements lead into blistering shredding and music that is, in the simplest terms possible, totally epic. Their sound is distinctly different from the rest of the bands which share this bill, which lends some enrichment to the whole experience of seeing a metal show. Repetitive metal shows are no fun. Why not get some operatic theatrics, too?

By the way, remember how We Came as Romans came as Romans earlier this month? They’ve officially been trumped. Fleshgod is actually from Rome, and that’s another goal for the Azzuri.

Finally, The Contortionist rounds out this motley line-up with a bit of progressive metal. The Indiana natives are probably not the most well-known group on this bill, but that doesn’t stop them from offering a hefty dose of thoughtful, carefully crafted progressive songwriting. Think of it as a break from the brutality. It’s bob, not bang, your head music.

Follow this link to watch some footage of their live show for this tour.

See April off right. Though May 18 is the Origin show, three weeks at the Granada without metal doesn’t make the house feel like a home. Thus, make it a mosh-pit Monday and take a gander at some of this metal crashing into our stage.

All Shall Perish, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Carnifex, The Contortionist and Renouncer perform at the Granada Tuesday, April 23. Doors open at 6:00pm. This is an all ages show.

Go ahead and drink the Kool-Aid

Get ready to line up and drink the Kool-Aid. No sense in asking what’s in it or where it’s been—just know that Cults is coming to the Granada this Saturday, and you will miss the comet if you don’t go.

Despite the fact that the name of the band opens itself to a slew of entertaining puns, the advent of the indie-pop San Dieguns by-way-of-New York to our quiet little blue speck in a red sea is nothing short of musical awesomeness. I feel like I say this a lot, and that, in many ways, I am a broken record, but this is one of the many shows the Granada has and will continue to offer that any self-respecting music fan will kick themselves for not going to see.

Cults began in earnest as the collaborative project of Brian Oblivion (guitars, percussion, keyboards) and Madeline Follin (vocals) in 2010 with what has become known as the Cults 7”, a collection of three songs posted to their Bandcamp page with intentions no greater than exposing their music to a wider audience and, you know, just putting it online.

(Here is an interview with Follin about, well, all sorts of stuff.)

Their paltry offerings did more than that, however, as the duo’s exhibition burned through the web like a fever. The question for listeners rapidly changed from “Who is this” to “Where can I get more?”

Fast forward to June of last year; Oblivion and Follin released their 11-song, 34-minute debut, also titled Cults. The full-length record received much of the same gratuity that their 7” release did. It was an eclectic mix of late-50s and early-60s doo wop, some Motown, a little bit of punk, 80s pop, and ambient noise and samples that, according to Metacritic, garnered generally positive reviews.

Reviewers favored the album for many of the same reasons they favored the 7”; Cults paid homage to a sound which, though overdone by many in their scene, they happen to execute with equal parts earnestness and precision.

Reviewers also stated the band made the most of their sampling, which serve to only augment the music, not overpower it or hide bad songwriting. Take, for example, the sample of Jim Jones (get it, cults?) talking about the treachery of life. It doesn’t own the song, but it makes it a whole lot more interesting.

The songwriting on their debut, however, claimed widespread attention as well. The apparent romance between Oblivion and Follin didn’t prohibit the duo’s drawing upon love—with all its faults—as a major source of inspiration. Follin demonstrates the airy, wistfulness of love in “You Know What I Mean” when she says, (as quoted by many a music reviewer) “Tell me what’s wrong with my brain/’cause I seem to have lost it.”

Three things: one, that’s an excellent song title; two, that’s some wordsmithery right there; three, did I mention I’m in love?

Lyrics such as this are rife in Cults, along with enough studio sleight of hand to make David Blaine blush. But what about the live show? Well, being the enterprising young musicians that they are, Cults are touring with a five-piece band, including a drummer, a second guitarist, and a bassist.

As for the live execution, a review from the Orange County Register called a show they played at the Observatory in O.C. a “triumph”. You know who gets triumphs? Roman emperors and top-notch musicians, that’s who. The review stated that the band picked a sort of “best-of” for their set list, and that the addition of a full band gave the two founders a more stable rhythmic base from which the audience could better feel their charming and dreamy songwriting. Cults also treated the audience to some covers (Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”) and tracks not on the album—“The Curse” and “Slow Song”.

By all accounts, the transition from album to auditorium seems an easy one for Cults, thus making their show all the more worth it to see. Seriously, here goes the broken record again, but don’t miss this show. The promise evident in an act like Cults, going from internet obscurity to legitimate musical force and minor fame, is one not taken lightly. So long as they don’t blow their collective musical load  they could be around for a long time. And your friends will ask you, “Where were you when Cults came? I heard that was an awesome show.” And you should appropriately respond “Front row center, getting doused in sweat and glory.”

Cults performs at the Granada Saturday, April 14. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Advance tickets are $12. Door tickets are $14. This is an all ages show.

–Brian Sisk

The merits of college rap

It seems like college-aged rappers are a dime a dozen these days—even that quiet kid in the back of your Western Civ class has a mixtape. And while prominence like this is usually the first sign that a genre or style is going stale, there is also something to be said for the artists who latch on to a genre such as college party rap and ride it into a more respectable position in the greater sphere of the music world.

This week, two of these artists—Mike Stud and Asher Roth—grace the stage of the Granada Theater, each bringing their own personal approach to the genre which has become a nation-wide phenomenon.

Hailing from Cranston, Rhode Island, Mike Stud (real name Mike Seander) is probably the closest thing to the platonic form of a white college-aged rapper. While in high school in 2006, he won the Rhode Island Gatorade Player of the Year and the Louisville Slugger player of the Year honors for his abilities as a pitcher.

By the time he got to college, playing for the Duke Blue Devils baseball team, the 6-foot-2-inch pitcher could throw a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, and was, needless to say, a starter for the team. It wasn’t until an injury sidelined him his junior year that he took up the rap game, and after a cold call from Boston-based singer Gerven and a music video shoot, Stud exploded in the blogosphere. The rest, it would seem, is history.

Now a graduate student in Georgetown’s sports management program, Stud’s musical career has unfolded before him, and his reach has expanded to encompass the whole country; Stud is currently slated to perform at venues from his native Rhode Island to Seattle. Not bad for a guy who started his whole career as a joke among friends.

When it comes to his music, Stud brings subject matter not at all dissimilar from his musical counterparts: girls, parties, shows, Solo cups and the like. The difference, however, comes from his delivery. Stud has a tendency to, as stated in an interview with thekollection.com, “not waste any lines” in his songs. Take this to mean that Stud, while obviously operating within the confines of his sound, is not pulling an Aaron Carter trick and rhyming words like “ball” with “y’all.” He is a grad student, and thus has the intelligence and sensibilities of someone who, though steeped in the “party” aspect of his music, also has the maturity and couth to phrase it in a clever and pleasing way. Rap is, after all, only about 50 percent subject matter; the rest is the way in which the subject matter is presented, and Mike Stud is all about presentation.

Standing at the opposite end of the college rapper spectrum is Asher Roth, who burst onto the scene in 2009 with his hit “I Love College,” which became the aptly titled introduction for many unaware of the emergence of a college rap scene.

Roth, an elementary education major from Penn State, tends to promote his image as the unlikely rapper. He raps about the ‘burbs, frequently discusses his use of cannabis, and openly confronts the friction he gets from his detractors for being the artist that he is. And yet, despite those detractors and their arguments against his music, Roth continues to prolifically and skillfully produce content. He has the fan base to support it, too, as his debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, sold 205,000 copies. The tagline here is “haters gonna hate.”

Roth’s most recent release, the Pabst and Jazz mixtape, shows how he is transforming himself from one among many in a genre he helped create to the standout figure. Including collaborations with nascent luminaries such as Kids These Days and a host of other underground MCs such as Action Bronson and Casey Veggies, Pabst and Jazz takes several steps forward from where Roth was as an artist when his debut hit. Now, with the release of his second full-length album due in the spring, Roth stands to carve himself a throne from the bedrock of the genre he helped create. Given his strides toward a more polished and well-thought-out product, this seems inevitable.

Basic morals tell us as people that it is wrong to judge others based on association, and that hard-and-fast rule applies to music, as well. Though it may not be the most illustrious, thought provoking, or high-brow music ever produced in the history of mankind, the college rap phenomenon is not without its merits. As evinced by the participation of artists like Mike Stud and Asher Roth, this genre, like so many others in the past, has the potential to become something more than just an easily written-off fad.

These two artists show that the talent and devotion—necessary elements for any successful artist—can take a virtual one-off curiosity and transform it into something respected, revered, and inspiring. The college rapper thing may not be your cup of tea, but it’s worth checking out in the same way grunge was worth checking out in 1989, or blues was worth checking out in the 1930s and 1940s. Every great musical movement started out as an oddity, and this is no different.

Mike Stud performs at the Granada March 7 with special guests That Kid Ty and Matt Easton. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. You can buy tickets here. This is an all ages show.

Asher Roth, featuring Nico Yoch and Josh Sallee, performs at the Granada March 8. Doors open at 8:30. You can buy tickets here. This is an all ages show.

Oscar watch party at the Granada Feb. 26

Oscar season is nigh, and what better way to spend the evening than with friends and film buffs alike at the Granada, which will host an Oscar watch party for the 84^th annual Academy Awards.

Aside from being able to spend the evening in a theater like the Granada with friends and a fully stocked bar, the watch party also functions as a fundraiser, as the proceeds from the $5 ticket price benefit the KU Film Works.

Beginning in earnest in 1929, the Academy Awards started as nothing more than a gathering of 270 of the film industry’s professionals at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The first ceremony, however, was the only one to escape the media’s eye.

By the second year, public enthusiasm for the event intensified, resulting in a Los Angeles radio station broadcasting the ceremony live. The 16^th Academy Awards were the first televised. Since that time, the Oscars have become a perennial extravaganza for both the industry and public. Since 1969, the Oscars have been broadcast across the globe, and currently are broadcast in more than 200 countries.

Of course, history takes a distant second to the chatter surrounding this year’s nominees. Recurrent favorites such as George Clooney, Stephen Spielberg and Meryl Streep all vie for awards in their respective categories: Clooney for his leading role as Matt King in The Descendents, Streep for her more than adequate representation of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, and Spielberg for directing yet another movie about a horse, War Horse. The most nominated film, however, is Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, nominated for a staggering 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The more prominent categories aside, the selection of films in the less-known categories exhibits a number of intriguing and striking shorts and documentaries.

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, a documentary nominated for the Best Documentary – Short Subject category, chronicles the survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan as they prepare, amid ruin and desolation, for the annual cherry blossom season. After grabbing the non-fiction short prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary is heavily favored to win the category.

More importantly, however, the Academy is taking a chance on the over-the-top comedy Bridesmaids by nominating the loud and awkward Melissa McCarthy (in the role of Megan Price) for Best Supporting Actress—because eating Cheese Whiz off a grown man’s nipples makes any actor a shoe-in for an Oscar nod.

Doors open at 6:00. This is an all ages event. You can purchase tickets at the Granada box office.