To whoever is in charge of the music at the ARC, I am writing to suggest that, for one day, your establishment should simply play Duflocka Rant: Halftime Show, the new mixtape by Waka Flocka Flame, over the stereo. This choice will only improve student fitness. Sure, Top 40 or whatever gets the blood pumping perfectly fine, but Duflocka Rant is in a league of its own. These songs could power an apartment complex on their own. They feature lots of shouting and gunshots. In fact, eight of the 19 tracks BEGIN with a gunshot or a gun being cocked, similar to a race. Waka Flocka Flame is also as energetic as a racer. Waka doesn’t rap as much as he shouts, and this keeps the energy at peak levels. Even the ballad, “Red Ferrari,” has Waka singing (more like autotuned speaking) about sex, Ferraris and being turnt up over an ominous melody and 808s while he shouts “SQUAAAAD” and “BOW” in the background (since this is a ballad, however,... ...

MUSIC 1. Phoenix Bankrupt! (April 30) French indie-rock juggernaut Phoenix returns to album-crafting after their mainstream breakthrough Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in 2009. Though there are no insanely catchy singles such as the earworms “1901” and “Lisztomania” of 4 years prior, Bankrupt! stands strong as an expertly produced and consistently satisfying pop record, dazzling the listener with the sounds of high-living in the entertainment world. 2. !!! Thr!!!er (April 30) Sacramento’s own dance-punk/disco heroes, !!! (commonly pronounced chk-chk-chk), deliver their most crisp and danceable record to date. Stylistic echoes of LCD Soundsystem, the Happy Mondays and late 70s/early 80s Ze Records can be heard, but some of the material is good enough to beat out all three in terms of groove and showmanship. 3. Snoop Lion Reincarnated (April 23) Whether one is a devoted Snoop fan or not, his new album will satisfy the curiosity of hearing an iconic figure completely switch up his aesthetic along with his persona as he continues a long and illustrious career journey from South Central... ...

Spring Breakers, the new film from Harmony Korine, is a very weird, divisive movie. I saw it over a week ago, at the very start of my own spring break, and I am still not sure what I thought of it. The film follows four college students (played by Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson from “Pretty Little Liars” and Rachel Korine, the director’s wife) who rob a restaurant to fund a spring break trip to Florida. While partying, they meet a white gangsta named Alien (James Franco) who brings the girls into a criminal underworld and a conflict with a rival drug dealer (played by trap rap god Gucci Mane). Now, the premise alone is great. I came into the film expecting an estrogen-charged crime movie, like “Heat” if the robbers were all women and crazy white men. However, the execution is where the movie will divide people. Korine decided to make the movie rather surreal, employing film editing in a disorienting way, with cuts having no real rhythm... ...

I’ve been to very few concerts in my life, but I feel that this one was unique. I doubt that any other concert I will attend will be delayed for several months, feature a video montage of songs from the 60′s that is as long as the opening act and end with several members of the audience rushing onto stage to hug the performer. Soon after transferring to UC Davis this year, I found out that Morrissey was set to perform at the Mondavi Center in November. I immediately bought tickets since Morrissey is my favorite lyricist and one of my favorite musicians. I revere him to the point that I go by my last name in my personal life as an homage. Sadly, the concert was delayed until March due to Morrissey’s mom unfortunately falling ill. Additionally, Morrissey fell ill with an ulcer at the end of January, which caused him to cancel several shows. I feared he would cancel again. Thankfully, he recovered and played the show on... ...

Eric Burdon is no stranger to rock n’ roll; nor are his fans. After all, he was a member of The Animals — yes, those Animals who gave the world the classic “House of the Rising Sun.” Since that time, Burdon has continued to release albums during his impressive solo career. His latest, ‘Til Your River Runs Dry, continues Burdon’s tradition of infusing rock with a shot of the blues. ‘Til Your River Runs Dry is an album filled with soulful lyrics and clockwork beats. Despite being in his 70s, Burdon is still able to croon with the best of them, his rough voice evoking images of an older time. Listening to “Bo Diddley Special” or “Invitation To the White House,” one can easily imagine Burdon singing in a smoke-filled bar. The first track, “Water,” is easily the most fast-paced of the album, kicking things off, while a cover of Bo Diddley’s famous “Before You Accuse Me” closes the album. Any fan of The Animals shouldn’t have to be told... ...

The film begins with a small heading on a black screen, “September 11, 2001.” Slowly, we hear hauntingly familiar audio transmissions wash over the dark theater. Desperate employees call from inside the towers,  bewildered police dispatchers giving false reassurance, air traffic controllers and news reporters all struggle to make sense of an unfolding situation. This is a gripping moment, and the audience feels prepared to enter a harrowing and controversial account of recent history. While ZD30 has some success in this area, particularly with a strong central performance by Jessica Chastain as the composite character Maya, much of the material feels like another murky 21st century American war thriller. Once again, our nation is grittily portrayed as more embittered, more uncertain than we were before 9/11, but with a typical approach to intelligence strategies that resembles an angry tennis match (inter-departmental feuds, reactive instead of proactive thinking) more than a patient chess game. Maya’s character brings a more quiet, intelligent determination to the story, offering a unique twist to the... ...

My Bloody Valentine released their second album, Loveless, on the same day my roommate was born. In the same amount of time it takes someone to go from the womb to college graduation, My Bloody Valentine has been working on their third album, m b v, which was surprise-released on their website last weekend. Guitarist and producer Kevin Shields’s perfectionism paid off, because m b v is absolutely incredible. Full disclosure: I’m a huge My Bloody Valentine fan, to the point where I had a You Made Me Realise shirt imported from England. Loveless is one of my all time favorite albums. The first half of m b v consists of tracks that pack the same wall of reverberated guitars, drums and vocals that makes Loveless so appealing. The song “Who Sees You” literally could be an outtake from the Loveless sessions. The second half is much harder to pin down sonically, as the band incorporates electronic influences in the sound. “New You” is a lower-tempo number dominated by hazy... ...

One man at UCD has danced his way to success. Keith Hennessy, who teaches the class “Theater, Performance and Culture” at UCD this Winter Quarter, ended 2012 with quite a bang: he received a prestigious award from the United States Arts Fellowship for his contributions to the field of dance. Hennessy is perhaps most well known as the founder and artistic director of Zero Performance and Circo Zero, “a contemporary circus,” according to the press release Cirque du Soleil with modern influences. According to the official website, Hennessy’s circuses “make live performance sparked by current and historic social realities.” Among dance performances, Zero Performance is unique in that it encourages interaction between the audience and the dancers themselves. “It fuses performance art with community activism while often breaking the barrier between audience and performer,” declared the USA Fellowship press release. Zero Performance also stands out due to its interdisciplinary nature. Unique in the world of dance, the show is highly experimental, often changing with the times. “Rooted in contemporary dance... ...

Django Unchained: Classic Tarantino material excites but is marred by disjointed presentation So far, popular opinion concerning Quentin Tarantino’s latest directorial effort has focused solely on the explicit nature of it’s violence. Why? As one of perhaps many 13 year-olds who were simultaneously horrified and thrilled by the wanton bloodletting in the Kill Bill movies of nearly a decade ago, (already 10+ years into Tarantino’s career) I find myself puzzled that the directors’ panache for stylized mayhem, already a well established trademark, should be so obsessively picked over once again by moviegoers who by now should be used to this sort of thing. To give this film the appropriately balanced consideration it deserves, we must ask ourselves if the film succeeds in hitting all the targets it sets out to. The short answer is that Django Unchained works in the capacity of capping a loose trilogy of revenge films, through which Tarantino has expressed his love for a number of genres: the Martial Arts film (Kill Bill), the War Film... ...