ARTS Pick: Balto

Hidden monuments Portland, Oregon-based folk collective Balto has been called “the band everyone should have heard of, but nobody has.” All that anonymity may be on the brink of dissipation, as the group heads east with a suitcase full of tunes from its latest EP, Monuments. The album was recorded in an old church over three days in […]

Local kids shine in Missoula Children’s Theatre

While the summer sun beats down outside this weekend, the Paramount stage will be replete with winter wind workers, blizzard bringers, icicle sharpeners, and snow smoothers – all local children cast in the Missoula Children Theatre’s modern adaptation of The Princess and the Pea. From kings, queens and phony princesses to flower gardeners and dust […]

ARTS Pick: Delta Rae

Turn it up Delta Rae (left) is known as a folk rock act, yet such a flat description is no match for the electrifying tunes from this North Carolina-based sextet. On their debut album, Carry the Fire, the Hölljes siblings complement rich Carolina soul with rockharmonies a la Fleetwood Mac and the storytelling narratives of folklore and mythology. The result […]

Film review: Man of Steel

After seeing Man of Steel, the Christopher Nolan-iphied Superman update, it’s become clear: Nolan is limited. He needs real-world characters who can supply real-world solutions, even if those real-world characters are fighting The Joker or swimming in someone else’s dreams. Starting off on an alien planet? It’s just too otherworldly for him to make worldly. An alien infant crash-landing on Earth needs a […]

ARTS Pick: Two Gallants

This past year San-Franciscan folk rock duo Two Gallants returned from a five-year hiatus with a new sound on its ATO Records debut, The Bloom and the Blight.

ARTS Pick: The Rocketeer

The record-breaking success of 1989’s Batman green-lit a wave big-budget retro-adventure films, including the outlandish, neon ensemble piece Dick Tracy; the brash, moody grotesquerie of The Shadow; and the feather-light, straight-faced camp of latecoming entry The Phantom. Nestled amongst them is 1991’s The Rocketeer; though it was considered a modest disappointment upon release (Disney thought […]

Showtime, Charlottesville: Japandroids are in town

Let’s get this out of the way: The name Japandroids doesn’t mean anything. Both members of the Vancouver-based rock band happened to come up with two-word names before their first billed show. Neither of them liked the other’s suggestion, so they combined them. The result is a play on words that Brian King and David Prowse expected to change before […]

A Recipe for Success

On March 1, 2013, Justin Drew Bieber tweeted that he had just experienced the “worst birthday.” It was later revealed that the vague message had something to do with a club’s owners throwing Bieber and his pals out because they suspected some were underage. Bieber disputed this, and I dispute that this qualifies as a “worst” […]

ARTS Pick: A Night at the Museum

After hours Your childhood dream of sneaking past the museum guards and playing among the art can finally come true. Spend the evening at UVA’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection with friends, Devils Backbone brews, musical accompaniment by the Judy Chops, Downbeat Project, and The Hill and Wood at A Night at the Museum. Explore the new exhibition, “After theDreamings: 25 […]