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Arts

 

Gunning for sexy glory

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

(@)(©)(©)(@)(@)

— SS SS SS

ancouver-based indie band
\ | Rococode released their
debut album, Guns, Sex
& Glory on February 7. With the
group finishing in the top 20 of last
year’s Peak Performance Project
and their album co-produced
by Mother Mother’s Ryan
Guldemond, the group has all their
cards in the right place.

The album, half-an-hour in
length, crescendos to life with the
opening track “Concentrate on
You.” From there, the band’s perky
pop sound, coupled with
the fantastic vocals of
keyboardist Laura Smith
and multi-instrumentalist
Andrew Braun, takes the
listener on a merry-go-
round of energetic bliss,
as well as brooding.

From the apocalyptic
“Death of a Payphone”
to the haunting two-
parter “Ghost,” there’s
a bleak silver lining
to this otherwise

happy-go-lucky group

of 20-somethings. Its touches
make you wonder how much
Guldemond was involved in the
production process, particularly on
the tracks “Blood” and “Dreams.”
Nevertheless, this is the band’s
first of hopefully many albums to
come. Guns, Sex & Glory is a success
in every regard. If nothing else,
you're bound to fall in love with
Smith’s powerfully sweet vocals.
You can see them live for free
next Friday, February 17 at the
CBC Regional Broadcast Centre in
Vancouver. If that’s all booked up,
head on over to Café Deux Soleils
later that evening for another
performance, $10 at the door.

| I N |

NS
tree case

 

 

Lana Del Rey is born to whine

   

yo ,* , .

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

(@)\(@)(@)

—— eS

ana Del Rey’s “Video Games”
[= waves of popularity

upon its release last October.
When I finally heard it not two
weeks ago, I asked myself, “why?”
Was I missing something in this
lifeless ballad regarding one of the
greatest technological pastimes?

Reflecting on the hype that

followed, perhaps it was just the
one track out of 15 on Born to Die
(released January 27) that had been
overrated. Del Rey’s sound, a blend
of contemporary R&B and pop,
laden heavily with contused and
scornful lyrics, is brought full-circle

 

Dispirited with wolves
The Grey: Liam Neeson vs. CGI

CICIcy

By Kealy Doyle
here are two separate movies
Te The Grey: a slasher-horror
in which CGI beasties

violently pick everyone off one
by one, and a bleak wilderness
survival tale which pits man
against the elements. The bad news
is that the two don’t play well
together. The good news is that
Oscar-nominated Irish actor and
professional badass Liam Neeson
is a hugely watchable, reassuring
presence no matter what he’s in.
Here, Neeson is a glum,
suicidal hunter hired by an
Alaskan oil company to protect its
workers from marauding wolves.
Ona trip home, his plane crashes
in the middle of nowhere in a
spectacularly terrifying sequence
which alone is almost worth the
price of admission. He and the
motley survivors must band
together against two enemies: the
unforgiving landscape and a pack
of man-eating wolves. Cue two
hours of swearing, snow-trudging,
and fireside confessions interrupted
by jarring bursts of gory CGI

 

@ Liam Neeson in The Grey

violence or, worse, gauzy, pastel

flashbacks to happier times.
That said, the direction is

visceral and intimate. We see the

ice on their beards and the dirt

under their fingernails, and you can

believe the actors are actually out
there in a blinding snowstorm. A

@ Lana Del Rey

   

Ke
ki
BS)
Es
5

by her soft-spoken style of singing.

The makings of what could have
been something epic unfortunately
crumble though, due to the lack of
one key element: subtlety.

Track after track, Del Rey finds
numerous ways—each separated
by a hair—to wallow in the misery
of heartbreak. Whether it’s the
disturbed tragedy of Lolita or
the concept that, as stated in the
opening and title track, “we were
born to die,” the intended theme
of the album soon becomes a
melodramatic ringing in the ear.

Despite its beautiful
orchestrations and occasional
successes (e.g. “Off To The Races,”
“Dark Paradise”), Born to Die
is ironically done in by its own
repetitiveness.

shame that we can’t quite believe
the wolves themselves, who snarl
and menace from just the wrong
side of the Uncanny Valley.