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Show TERTAINMENT Tuesday, February 6,2007 Page 4 ARTS Housekeeping issues Tuesday, Feb. 6 Concert Van Wilder Tour: Featuring Everclear $ 17 in advance/ $ 19 at the door T 7 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson to read on Thursday "And she would feel that sharp loneliness she had felt every long evening since she was a child. It was the kind of loneliness that made clocks seem slow and loud and made voices sound like voices across water." fcflt-L Y ^*? GILEAD MAftli-V fNE ROBINSON Excerpt from Gilead: 'There's a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much loneliness, where you wouldn't really expect to find it, either." Pultizer Prize-winning author and essayist Marilynne Robinson's work has had a profound impact of the landscape of contemporary literature and criticism. Her first novel, Housekeeping, won the Pen/Hemmingway Award for best first novel and received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Her second novel, Gilead, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and was widely hailed a masterpiece by critics. Robinson's two non-fiction collections, The Death of Adam and Mother Country, were also met with considerable praise. The narrative of Robinson's work—the sequence in which her books have been released—is particularly compelling in contemporary American literature: Housekeeping, which signaled a kind of sea change for many modern writers and students of literature with its fluid, elegant, confident prose and its courage in confronting the contradictions of love and family, was released 23 years before her next novel, Gilead. The latter made good on the promises of the former and established Robinson as one of the most natural lyric-narrative stylists working today. • •-- •••-• - What makes Robinson's books so astounding—particularly her novels, although her essays are vital in their own way—is at once her compassionate, unflinching narrative eye and her elegiac, incantatory, sonic language. Whereas some writers make a living attempting to answer tough questions—to affix singular definitions to beguiling conundrums—Robinson is focused on the glory that exists in NOT ANSWERING (that is, allowing for possibility, instead of narrowing away from it). Robinson approaches issues of significant moral and human concern—issues of inheritance, essentialism, redemption and what it means to forgive and to love—with the eye of a sound believer, the eye of belief that can only come after 1 > What: Puitlzer Prlze-winninq author and essayist Marilynne Science Movie Night: "Bug" Free Salt Lake City Library (210E. 400 South) > When: Thursday at 7 p.m. > Where: Salt Lake City Library (210 E. 400 South), Main Auditorium > How much: Free ; - sincere questioning. Robinson takes little for granted in her work; in The Death of Adam, she undertakes her ruminations on modern thought as though she literally needed to exhaust every position for herself, rarely taking secondhand opinions as fact. This wonder (this ability to see the world as constant and new simultaneously, to positively engage instead of passively react) imbues in her prose an air of divine discovery. One feels refreshed and invigorated to read her muscular, tender, insightful lines. There is a sense in Robinson's work that one is being privileged to1 the rebirth of the world—a sense in reading, as she puts it in Gilead, that "a person can change. Everything can change." Robinson is empathetic enough to witness the suffering and redemption that characterizes much of the human condition, yet she is erudite enough to understand that these human conditions go beyond reductive comprehension. What all this means, really, is that missing Robinson's reading this Thursday is something you just plain shouldn't do. It's not every day such a writer reads—for free—in your neighborhood. The Guest Writers Series and the Salt Lake City Library deserve our thanks. e.green@ chronicle.utah.edu Beneath the Sky's debut has a little of both wardness; second, and more importantly, What Demons kids who buy Do to Saints every record Victory that looks like Records it matches their Three out of eyeliner will five stars scoop this up ••• and praise it as the most awesome album they've ever heard. Beneath the Sky What Demons Do to Saints proves itself as exactly what it purports to be, but with unexpected to make What Demons Do to Saints flair, lots of riffage, ghastly vocals come across as a brutally honest and 16th beats—while the song album—no deception required. structures can be almost a little This produces a twofold effect: progressive at times. The keytar— First, snooty, snobby music sp6- notoriously famous for only being cialistes will spit upon, revile and proudly used by cumbia villera mock such blatant straightfor- bands and John Tesh—provides an •/ Film > Who: The English department's Guest Writers Series Demons or Saints? Everything about Beneath the Sky—the band name, the name of its debut What Demons Do to Saints, the album's1 artwork (including obvious Hot Topic apparel featured in the band's promo picture)—screams cliche. Oh, this is a metalcore album? Schwaa?! You mean to tell me Beneath the Sky is a band that intermixes death metal growls, abrasive howls AND melodic singing? No way! Oh, dear reader, way... But for how ingratiating this tactic is, putting all the cards on the table (even if it's a sucky hand) does Beneath the Sky's purpose well. Stay with me now. The purpose driving Beneath the Sky (and the record execs) is (13 N. 400 West) 6:30 p.m. Eryn Green Chronicle Asst. A&E Editor Excerpt from Housekeeping: The Depot added tone that adds more than it detracts. Weird. Lyrically, Beneath the Sky falls short, as the topics covered in What Demons Do to Saints all seem trite. All in all, What Demons Do to Saints is sticking to its guns, and that's a good play—although this move leaves innovation wanting. Regardless, many bands make it big without being pioneers, and Beneath the Sky just might become a metalcore powerhouse if it sticks to its roots. Casualties are always higher on the experimental side of music, and from the looks of What Demons Do to Saints, Beneath the Sky wants to be in for the long run. Jesse Peterson K U T E radio's Pick o' the week It's hard Busd river for my faRoadkjil ther to apOvercoat pre ciate Anti- Records rap music. Four-and-a-half He thinks outof five, stars it's just a ••••V' deep bass . / I i b.i11JI i i thump and some guy talking in an unmelodic way about unintelligible or unintelligent things. I don't know that he'd like Busdriver any more than he'd like any other hip-hop artist, but his theories are shattered by this album. In Busdriver's recent release, Roadkill Overcoat, he mixes rap with spacey electronic keyboards, rock music and techno. This is not your average ghetto rap. The lyrics are smart and witty—if somewhat disjointed and abstract— and the general atmosphere is dark, not like a septic alleyway, but like the brain of a schizophrenic New York cabbie. It only makes sense that this album is on the Epitaph subsidiary Anti-Records. Despite the fact that we're only one month into the year, we can confidently say that the song "Casting Agents and Cowgirls'* will be one of our favorite songs of 2007. It is melodic and hooky while still being unpredictable and amusingly odd. Other noteworthy tracks include the dizzying and hilarious lyrics of "Pompous Posies! Your Party's No Fun," "(Bloody Paw on the) Kill Floor" and "Go Slow," with its moody synths and monk-like drone. It also features Bianca Casady from the amazing and achingly beautiful electronicfolk duo CocoRosie, which is an uncommon but very interesting and refreshing choice for a hip-hop guest appearance. This album is more like Beck than Gorillaz. More like cLOUDDEAD than Linkin Park. And for those of you who need a more d hip" recommendation, MySpace recently featured Busdriver on its homepage. But don't let other MySpacers claim they found Busdriver first...you'll just be embarrassed, and you may lose some of your virtual friends. You can hear this and other experimental rock and rap music by tuning into KUTE Radio at www.fcute.org. KUTE |
