Recent Contributions from Lauren Herget

Two-ferrific: There's Nothing Better Than Two For the Price of One

Lauren Herget — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If there’s anything I like better than a one-fer, it’s a two-fer.

For you folks not hip to my slang (and there could be a great lot of you … I have been known to make up a word or two), a “two-fer” is a “two-for-one” deal; i.e. I pay for one awesome thing, and, due to the “magic” of Capitalism, I get two things at a roughly-equal-but-let’s-be-realistic-never-more-than-one-and-a-half-times-more-expensive-than-usual price (and let’s not think about who’s disadvantaged by this scheme for now). Well, in two-fer deals, it’s really just that I get one awesome thing and one extra, usually seriously shoddy thing.

But who cares!

Cornell Does Comedy

Lauren Herget — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

You’ve got to have a sense of humor to get by at Cornell. With the fluctuating weather, the sometimes near-impossible courses, the even more ridiculously obscure prelims and the generally serious academic mood, something’s gotta give. Comedy offers no better way to balance the C.U. pressure cooker.

Cornell’s Program Board (CUPB) rolls out the laughs by hosting a gamut of comedians to offer their biting wit and spot-on observations. But did you know that there are student on-campus comedy troupes, too? And that a few of said comedians have dipped their toes — even gotten their feet wet — in the waters of stand-up? And, lastly, did you know that these kids are funny? I mean, really, really funny?

God Versus the United States of America: A.K.A.: Some Unlawful Bitches Be Crazy

Lauren Herget — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Are you there, God/G-d/Allah?

It’s me, Lauren.

I know we haven’t spoken in a while (my bad), but let’s not sweat the small stuff. This piece isn’t about my being a bad Catholic. Rather, I just wanna rap to You real quick about some of the absolutely absurd legal rulings that have been a-brewing this past week or so — some of which even include You.

How to Protect Your Food Against Mooches (E.G. Me)

Lauren Herget — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

These are the times that try men’s souls. Dow Jones dropped 777 points on Monday, Sarah Palin believes that people and dinosaurs once coexisted and Heather Locklear was arrested for DUI in Montecito, CA. I could totally understand why, in a world quickly spiraling out of control and barrelling toward some kind of absurdity, that you’d want to control and contain what’s yours. And what’s one of man’s greatest comforts in this topsy-turvy world of ours? Having food to call one’s own. And what’s one of the biggest disappointments of all? Having some schmuck jack said food without leaving a note.

Shenis Envy: How to Pee Like a Man

Lauren Herget — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Two Fridays ago I ran into a problem I run into most Fridays around 11 p.m. I had imbibed one too many drinks before leaving the house (during an event some might call a “pre-game”). Damn Cornell’s campus for making any destination annoyingly out of reach, because wouldn’t you have known it!, 300 yards out the door, and I I realized I had to use the restroom.

My Li'l Pony

Lauren Herget — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Once, a teacher wrote a note to my parents that I have a “keen eye for details” and a “quick wit.” Who knows if this is true, but I’m gonna take these compliments and run with them. And then find absurd items to write about and put all of it into a column. Hello, everyone, my name is Lauren. Welcome to my space.

Something about animals helping humans really tugs at my heartstrings — truly. Maybe I read Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul too frequently growing up, who knows. All I know is that I quickly grow verclempt watching a guide dog sit loyally near its appreciative owner, or maneuver deftly both itself and its owner through a busy city street to the intended destination.

RJD2 to Rock the Arts Quad During Orientation ... for FREE

Lauren Herget — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:30:42 -0400

... And we're back! Welcome once again to the big show, Cornell. Prop up your feet; make yourself comfortable and ready for a new school year. Could I get you anything? A mineral water with a spritz of lime? A foot massage?

I do regret to say, dear readers, serving is not my strong suit, but how about I serve you a free show on the Arts Quad instead? You will forget all about your parched palate and your hurting high arches when you hear RJD2's fine beats rip across the quad, Saturday, August 30.

Slope Day Preview: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Lauren Herget — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

My, oh my, Ted, look at your progress in the last decade: From your punky, Fugazi-inspired days on the streets of DC to touring small clubs and recording incessantly to finally opening up for Slope Day 2008, you’ve come a long way, baby!

And the man deserves every bit of praise and respect he earns: Ted Leo and his troupe of balladeers (a.k.a. the ever-shifting line-up of the Pharmacists) are relentless … really. When they’re not touring, they’re seemingly always recording a new album, or else honing their sound to become better, fitter, faster and generally stronger. The result is highly melodic, literate, witty, genre-crushing post-punk.

Test Spin: M83

Lauren Herget — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Weren’t the ’80s just totally tubular? Didn’t the decade have just the cutest fashions? Wasn’t John Cusack totally swoon-worthy in Say Anything? Yes, yes and yes — and M83 agrees. During a period of the ’00s when the ’80s are so totally hot again, it sounds like Anthony Gonzalez (a.ka. the dude behind M83) wants in.

In fact, on his latest record, Saturdays=Youth, it sounds like Gonzalez is feeling a little nostalgic for the days passed when Rubik’s Cubes still blew everyone’s minds. On the LP, Gonzalez explores the well-traversed terrain of synth-pop, but gives it a comfortably operatic, shoegaze sheen that both old and new M83 fans can appreciate.

Test Spin: Dodos

Lauren Herget — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Dodos aren’t dead — well, the band isn’t, anyway. The Dodos combat the so-called “sophomore slump” with their fantastic second album, Visiter. The record was entirely written while on tour with Akron/Family, Les Savy Fav and Peter and the Wolf.

Perhaps their touring mates played some part in the inspiration for this album because one can definitely sense the freak-folk guitars of Akron/Family, the jittery drums of Les Savy Fav and the pop sensibilities of Peter and the Wolf imbuing this work. A little country, a little punky, a little folky, a little lo-fi — and a lot more bombastic than their first effort, Beware of the Maniacs; there’s something for everyone on Visiter.

Ups and Downs, Shades of Grey

Lauren Herget — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Meet me in Austin; it’s goin’ down! This weekend, the arguably hippest of all Texan cities will host the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Showcasing over 100 bands over the three-day weekend, it is sure to be an orderly blur of peace, love and music. In honor of this momentous occasion, I’ve decided to review a sort-of-oldie-but-definitely-a-goodie, Glasgow’s Frightened Rabbit.

Their debut record, Sing the Greys, was first released across the pond way back in May 2006 on a local indie start-up label, Hits the Fan. In November of 2007, they re-released their album under the aegis of Fat Cat Records. And voila, mediocre stateside recognition.

Fanclub Welcomes Cleveland’s White Williams

Lauren Herget — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Holy Smoke — Fanclub’s got a great show for your listening pleasure this Saturday! Joe Williams, better known as White Williams, will be gracing Appel’s stage, roundabout 9 p.m.

Having previously toured with Dan Deacon and Girl Talk this past year, people are finally taking notice of White Williams, and with good reason.

Hailing from fair Cleveland, Ohio (Cleveland!), White William’s got an art school sensibility with a midwest demeanor. Basically, he knows his musical ish (he played all the instruments on his debut), but he won’t try to hit you over the head with his skill.

Sexy and Sad

Lauren Herget — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Maybe — just maybe — the title of Hot Chip's latest album, Made in the Dark (Astralwerks/DFA) is meant to reflect their recording process, given that a good deal of the album sounds disorganized and inconsistent, similar to if it were recorded and mixed in the dark.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe the phrase “made in the dark” simply refers to the title track, a down-tempo old soul (falling out of) love ballad. A simple ¾ drumbeat begins the song, after which a bluesy piano and mournful guitar riff fill the silence. Then Alexis Taylor begins his heartbroken plaint: “Since we fell apart, I’ve been nothing but blue/ Longing for a nighttime to bring back my you/ Every night in motion, together apart.” Oh—I get it now. “Made in the Dark” was describing sex all the time!

To Rock (Band) or Not) (con)

Lauren Herget — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Oy gevalt, Rock Band and Guitar Hero! Cut me a break, will ya? Your ubiquity makes me wild (but not in a good way). I can’t pinpoint the exact reason as to why these new games are causing such a hubbub, but I’ll tell you: I don’t go for them. Realizing that I may come off as too nostalgic or sentimental, I’ll now ask one question: what happened to starting real, honest-to-goodness bands? Frankly, is it such a big to-do to learn the damn instruments?

Local Bands Playing Tonight

Lauren Herget — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Ah, young talent. How cute, how quaint, how unprofessional, right? Wrong. This Friday at No Radio Records, come down to feast your ears on a night of music brought to you by three talented, very local bands (that are young to boot!).

The first band goes by the name of Caution Children, hailing from the other side of The Hill at Ithaca College. Comprised of at least seven friends (but probably expect more), prepare yourselves for an aural assault of eclectic, noisy, electro-jams.

Winding Sheet EP

Lauren Herget — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Tristero’s got an old soul with a young body. Comprised of college-age students (including Sun columnist, Maurice Chammah ’10), they form delicate arrangements and write nuanced lyrics that translate onto their music with a remarkable result. In short, their songs will strike you where your heart beats. Their newest album, The Winding Sheet EP, doesn’t signal a departure so much as an arrival; compared to their first EP, A Miracle is Another World’s Intrusion into This One, they sound more sonically cohesive and confident in their ability. Personal favorite is the song “Will They Break,” fronted by Chammah.

God Bless American Gladiators

Lauren Herget — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Approximately two-and-a-half millennia after the fall of Rome, a new breed of Gladiator emerged: the American Gladiator. Premiering on Sept. 16, 1989, the series became a smash hit for CBS, enjoying a lengthy run and accruing quite the cultural niche for itself. But seven seasons later, (that’s 1996 for those of you keeping track), the series was cancelled due to diminished ratings and a lack of popularity. This year, the show returned to the air.

Record Review: Armageddon Monks

Lauren Herget — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Ima be real: Speed metal is not my preferred genre when I’m on the hunt for new music. All the same, my personal aversion couldn’t overshadow the musical ability of Armageddon Monks.

Originally Cornell-bred and now an Ithaca staple, their self-titled EP exhibits their fluid style: although probably most comfortably labeled as “metal,” they shift easily from a hardcore 7/4 breakdown to an intricately layered Classic Rock riff (see the track “Waste” for an especially good example of this).

Armageddon Monks do a great job melding genres to an interesting sonic result. Even for a non-metalhead, attention-deficit listener like me, The Monks caught my ear and kept me entertained for the entirety of the record.

Record Review: Britney Spears

Lauren Herget — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Do you think it’s just a coincidence that Britney Spears’ initials spell BS? Well, yeah, duh — but it’s an interesting observation, especially in light of her latest album, Blackout!

Here, Britney attempts to recognize and respond to recent public scrutiny by singing out her media blues. To her credit, she succeeds: she vents her spleen all over this record. At issue, though, is that Britney didn’t personally write any of the songs appearing on the album, giving Blackout! a decidedly false — and, in many ways, comical — veneer.

Record Review: Home Schooled

Lauren Herget — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Kids say the darndest things ... in soul tunes? Home Schooled: the ABCs of Kid Soul is one of the latest (and greatest) compilations from The Numero Group. This album boasts a quirky amalgamation of rarely-noted funk bands, like the “Manchild Singers” and “Jr. & His Soulettes.” Ever heard either of them?

“Zapped on Robitussin” ... Sounds Like Fun!

Lauren Herget — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Justin Farrar of the Miami New Times once called the Sic Alps “total amateurs zapped on Robitussin, bashing out a primal fusion of Sixties garage rock and deliriously distorted psychedelia (think early Spacemen 3/Sonic Youth).” Does this sound like fun to you? Well, you’re in luck, my friend, because Fanclub Collective is at it again! This Saturday, you can be one of the lucky few to see Sic Alps live, in person down at No Radio Records!

So, okay, maybe that was a shitty start. But all I’ve said so far is true. Sic Alps is coming. They will play on Saturday. And it will begin with Aaron Phillip Tate, who will play Halloween-inspired songs to get us in the mood for the weekend.

Record Review: Mum

Lauren Herget — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Múm, how you gonna play me like this? You used to be one of my favorite bands. Yeah, I said it. Used to be. Past tense. I was originally drawn in by your otherworldly lullabies on Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today is Okay and Finally We Are No One. You were so soothing, so ambient, so like fellow Icelandic band Sigur Rós, yet so different. You maneuvered your songs through deft landscapes of mini-beats and created complex walls of percussion. You were charming. You were quaint. You were like the foreign exchange student everyone has a crush on, simply because you're foreign. There wasn’t much to you not to like ... Until three years ago.

Record Review: Animal Collective

Lauren Herget — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

In the Grimm fairy tale, The Town Musicians of Bremen, a gaggle of domesticated animals leave their masters in pursuit of freedom. Along the way, they are mistaken for monsters by strangers who cannot comprehend their music-playing ability. In the end, the pipers in the tale march confidently into the town of Bremen, triumphantly announcing their arrival.

Animal Collective has long been on the music scene, but we might as well treat their latest LP, Strawberry Jam, as their own ecstatic entrance. While their previous LPs (Feels and Sung Tongs) were inarguably impressive, they bear the mark of a band trying to define and understand its own sound.

Frankly, Sung Tongs plays like promising acoustic demos in comparison to Strawberry Jam.

On the Sixth Day We Danced

Lauren Herget — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Justice, like their legal name suggests, ruled my summer. I heard the Parisian duo’s latest album, ✝, played at all of the dance clubs and noticed it name-dropped in many of my oft-frequented music blogs. While I wholly enjoyed Justice’s eager acceptance into our summer’s sonic lexicon, I feel about Justice the same way I feel about Harry Potter: Completely enjoyable but in some ways artistically questionable.

The album is not groundbreaking and does little to challenge the genre. Indeed, it sounds fresh to American ears largely because we have not turned our attention to Paris’s scene since Phoenix’s or Daft Punk’s last album.

Just Enough To Keep Afloat

Lauren Herget — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:00:00 -0400

Body:

Once Modest Mouse released Good News for People Who Love Bad News in 2004, there was no turning back. After their unexpected breakout hit “Float On,” how could they return to the more languid, “Dramamine”-laced sound of yore? The answer is, they couldn’t, and their newest effort, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank doesn’t try to fight the tide.

Review: No Alternative: The Sure Thing

Lauren Herget — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:00:00 -0400

Deckhead:

Daze reviews Laura Veirs’ latest

Body:

3 out of 5 Stars

My iTunes imported Laura Veirs’ latest album, Saltbreakers under the genre “Alternative.” Nice try, iTunes, but I’d say that’s a bit of a stretch. Within her liner notes, Veirs thanks both “Sufjan” and “Colin and the rest of the Decemberists.” Counting these artists among Veirs’ friends, one can divine a mostly-accurate stereotype about this album’s songs: the lyrics will be colored with a certain melancholy regarding the human condition, while the melody will be upbeat and catchy enough to lift the songs out of their existential gloom. And you can be certain the album will contain lofty, almost literary metaphors — in this case, maritime in theme, given the album’s title.