Volume 37, Issue 4

Morrissey - Years of Refusal (Lost Highway: February 16, 2009)

After nine solo albums, you’d think Morrissey would run out of mope on Years of Refusal, but somehow this is never the case. In fact, there is more depression here than ever. If song titles like “Sorry Doesn’t Help” and “I’m OK By Myself” aren’t enough, just listen to the single about how he’ll hug a city because he can trust steel better than flesh, or how he doesn’t have to be nice to you anymore because your birthday just ended. Ouch.Read more...

"The last time, when we played here with strings, there were a lot fewer people,” Alejandro Escovedo said, a few songs into his set last Monday at the Gravity Lounge. “We played very quietly and politely, and tonight we’re here to do pretty much the exact opposite.” He proceeded to dedicate the next song to the late Ron Asheton, the unimpeachably awesome and recently deceased guitarist for The Stooges.Read more...

Toronto, Ontario’s Fucked Up is one of the most enigmatic and talked about bands in indie, hardcore, punk, and Canada. Their ability to build hardhitting yet catchy three chord punk rock tracks into epic anthems makes them a truly unique talent in alternative music. They’ve been accused of being fascists because they used a photograph of a Hitler Youth rally on the cover of a record, despite having several songs that adamantly declare their anti-fascist stance.Read more...

I don’t mind my parents. I actually like them, most of the time, when they’re not being annoying. I like to tell them about what’s going on in my life because sometimes they have insights and because they are obligated to listen. Their lives have not been terribly exciting, but, still, they have lived longer than I have, so they should theoretically know something about growing up.Read more...

Welcome back, my friends, to a new semester of OFFScreen, U.Va.’s one-stop shop for indie and foreign cinema. This season we’re showing 12 films likely to never be seen on the big screen outside Los Angeles, New York, and . . . Charlottesville. Here’s a primer for our upcoming features:Read more...

Last semester, I took a comparative literature class on the Uncanny. I learned early on that this term gets thrown around quite a bit simply to describe things and events that frighten and unnerve people. My world-class professor, however, made sure he hammered in our heads the Freudian definition(s) and all the twists and turns it makes in various situations. Frankly, I would not put it past my professor to have a little shrine to the “Father of Psychoanalysis.” More often than not, when one thinks of this master, he or she first acknowledges the Oedipal complex espoused by this genius.Read more...

Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have claimed victory over the bloody conflict in Gaza. Over thirteen hundred Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in a conflict that began in late December. Throughout, American politicians have gestured support for Israel it latest assault on the impoverished Gaza strip. While the shaky truce between Israel and Hamas remains intact, the United States’ people and leaders should consider once again whether or not giving Israel a free hand to oppress Palestinians is in America’s national interest.Read more...

Rushin’ Roulette

Girls’ rush has been the talk of the town over the past two weeks. Always a sucker for gossip, Poodah recently managed to infiltrate the Inter-Sorority Council during a hearing on rumors of a planned hazing process for the new pledges of Pi Omega Omega Pi.Read more...