If Austin-based musician Graham Reynolds were an animal, he would be an octopus. Best known as the mastermind behind the Golden Arm Trio and for scoring Richard Linklater’s 2006 film A Scanner Darkly, the composer adroitly juggles between musical projects as if he had eight arms.

1 out of 5 Stars

OK. I get it. The Kings of Leon are really cool. And I am pretty sure they always have been. That’s their thing, right? But on Because of the Times, the Kings seem less collected and more confused.

Completely shutting off one’s mind the moment that class ends is not atypical for a college student. Drudging home after a grueling day — two prelims, a paper and a lab — to finally turn on the stereo and relax is an all too familiar picture for many Cornell students. But students Angad Bhai ’08, Bennett Fox ’08, Sheyen Ikeda ’09 and Ezekiel Rediker ’09, are not content with this mindless music-consumer culture.

The booming bass and thunderous claps on Queen’s “We Will Rock You” can always drive a stadium of thousands wild. When Gary Glitter’s guitars wail and cymbals crash on the ubiquitous “Rock and Roll Part 2,” no one misses one of those classic “Hey’s!” Remember the days of The Baja Men? Because frankly, I still don’t know “who let those dogs out.”

The summer sun saturates the Bronx. But as the sun sets in yellow and orange, Pacha Massive scorches in purple and pink. An eclectic blend of everything nice, Pacha Massive is most distinctly Latin. But don’t forget the sex.

There is rock and roll. There is Broadway. And then, there is Spring Awakening.

The new Broadway musical Spring Awakening, now playing at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, captures the caged passion and sentiment of youth with as much shock and seduction as rock ’n roll at its best — remember Elvis? A Catcher in the Rye for the Broadway main stage, Spring Awakening actually stages a youth in revolt. As parents talk, kids hear nothing, and this one-way-dialogue erupts into one rattling and authentic chorus, “Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.”

Classes fell to a halt yesterday as a pack of hooligans dressed in nothing but green paint and underwear tore through Cornell campus buildings in anticipation of Dragon Day 2007. With a normal sleepless night, this pack of freshman was fueled by adrenaline and suspense as Dragon Day quickly approaches tomorrow. Each year, Cornell freshman in the college of Art, Architecture and Planning, emerge from their cave (also known as Rand Hall), and unleash a mythical-sized Dragon constructed entirely by their own ignition, only to burn their masterpiece in the middle of the Arts Quad at the end of the day.

Jonah Eisenstock ’10 started his playwriting career with a splash last month as his first “serious” play, The Anniversary, won first prize in the Heermans-McCalmon Playwriting Competition. Open to all Cornell University undergraduates, the contest awards a first and second prize to the two best one-act plays. Winning first prize, Jonah was awarded $500 and the honor of staging his play at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts on March 2 — Jonah could not be happier.

The Broken West sizzles in the blazing sun of their hometown, Los Angeles — crafting indelible power pop that urges for a Top Down summer drive all the way up the Pacific Coast Highway. From the legacy of ancestors—Beach Boys, George Harrison—to osmosis of greats—Wilco, Spoon—and improvement upon contemporaries—The 88, Rooney—The Broken West perfects their California sound confirming that the west is still alive and full of possibilities.

Last Sunday’s GRAMMY Awards hosted a slew of impressive performances — costumes, sets, glitter and glam — that were, for the most part, just shy of audacious. The Recording Academy has the power to throw together talent and create some spectacular sights, but the most impressive of this year’s show was the reuniting — after 20 years and a history of quarrels — of the Police. The band opened the evening with just one song: the 1978 hit “Roxanne.” But why now? Why did the Police reunite this past Sunday at the GRAMMYs?