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Sunday, July 13, 2025

The Avenue

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album Review: Late of the Pier – “Fantasy Black Channel”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 28, 2009

Worlds collide in Castle Donington, England. Devo grows up a punk band; disco hones its chops at CBGB; black leather sprouts sequins. Late of the Pier wears the side effects. A four-piece from the British Isles, the young new wave act shows off all manner of mishmashed influences, piecing together a sound that filters the '80s' choice bits through a laptop, distorts them to hell and discards everything else. This cut-and-paste style makes room for swirling synths, Nintendo-bleep percussion, even Sabbath-lite riff rock ("Heartbeat"). But these secondary players all feed off the band's bread and butter: the almighty groove, which achieves a heightened state in the form of the menacing electro-blast called "Whitesnake." It's a song that unlocks imaginative, other-dimension scenarios - two-steppers take over Studio 54; Madge learns guitar; hipsters dance to power chords.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album Review: Glasvegas – “Glasvegas”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 28, 2009

Glasvegas takes its name from hometown Glasgow and Sin City, which means that the Scottish quartet has an uncanny knack for haphazardly conjoining words and musical trends. To the surprise of no one, the NME crowd has anointed these Clash look-alikes London's latest and greatest craze du jour as This Month's Beatles manage a sound that pillages from almost every English musical movement of the last three decades. Shoegaze grandeur? Check. Ringing Edge-style guitars? Check. The Smiths' melodrama? Oh yeah, it's there -- most shamelessly in the form of "Lonesome Swan," a hackneyed rip of "I Know It's Over" with a guitar line set to the latter song's "Then why are you on your own tonight?" melody. Particularly grotesque is the Joe Strummer knock-off "Stabbed" that repeats ad nauseam, "I'm gonna get stabbed."

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album Review: Thom Yorke – “The Eraser Remixes”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 28, 2009

The beat-challenged white man's attempt to appeal to please cool urban people, the remix album already exists as something of a superfluous curiosity, but gains an added aura of "WTF?" whenever someone as supremely talented as Thom Yorke indulges in its futile pursuits. It is safe to say that each and every one of these nine edits resurfaces inferior to its predecessor, but The Bug's adaptation of "Harrowdown Hill" takes the butcher-job crown as it (for lack of a better term) erases the track's devastating electric guitar coda. Elsewhere, Various' "Analyse" rendition kills any sense of rhythm with stuttering drum machine percussion and layers of reverb. Yorke includes two versions of "Black Swan," which would seem laughably unjustified if not for the chorus's eloquent summation of the remix: "This is f----d up/ f----d up."

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album review: Antony and the Johnsons – “The Crying Light”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 21, 2009

If you've ever been to a wake, you know that death cleans up real nice - velvet casket, crisp new suit, lots of pretty flowers. It's this bizarre phenomenon, the union of darkness and beauty, that Antony takes to haunting extremes with "The Crying Light," a smiling cadaver of an album that opens with the line "Her eyes are underneath the ground" and only gets more frightening from there.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  LIFESTYLE

The A–List: Budget friendly

By ALISON SCHWARTZ | Jan. 21, 2009

So your financial aid disbursement didn't exactly go as planned. Your wallet may have seen better days, but don't let a lack of funds put a damper on your fun. There are plenty of ways to kill time in Gainesville that don't require any transactions from your bank account.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  LIFESTYLE

Presidential tradition: boardrooms to bedrooms

By ASHLEY ROSS | Jan. 14, 2009

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come. In less than a week, Bush is out of office. Critics might allege that he destroyed our economy, started two wars and even failed to correctly pronounce the word nuclear on a regular basis. But he succeeded in one area-he is leaving the White House without a sex scandal on his record.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album Review: Fall Out Boy– “Folie A Deux”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 7, 2009

Here's a dirty little secret: The All-American Rejects have no backbone. But then neither do lobsters, and they're doing just fine. In "When the World Comes Down," the too-pretty Oklahoma natives pack all the punch of an aging Oscar de la Hoya, but when your clientele is teenage girls - text: omg! Gr8est band ever!!! - substance takes a back seat to confessions like, "There's a part of you that's still inside of me." If you can stomach the gratuitous fluff, the big melodies - "Another Heart Calls," "Believe" - go a long way toward quenching your sugar fix. It's when the guys use their sappy sound to vent ("Gives You Hell") that they run into trouble. Using strings, synths and pretty harmonies to convey pent-up anger? About as believable as Ben Stein the motivational speaker.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Album Review: Fall Out Boy– “Folie A Deux”

By ROBERT HILSON | Jan. 7, 2009

Because teens still shop at Hot Topic, skinny jeans are recession-proof and Pete Wentz is still the object of many tabloids, Fall Out Boy continues to release products under the this-ship-hasn't-sailed "emo" label. Is this an accurate description of the band's sound? Please. "Folie A Deux" reeks drama, from its meaty, disco-nicking first single "I Don't Care," to the ohh-ohh crammed "She's My Winona," right down to the pretentious song titles - file the song "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes" under 10 Phrases More Preposterous Than "Folie A Deux." Thankfully, as evidenced by lyrics like "Nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy," the boys are in on their own joke and pretty much insulated from backlash. Let those of us without tight pants cast the first stone.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Band stages benefit

By LANE NIESET | Jan. 7, 2009

In a small village in El Salvador, one man has not left in 10 or 12 years. So much time has passed that he can't remember the last time he left. The nearest stream, which is barely a trickle, is a 10 minute hike over hills and poor health conditions prevent many people in the town of El Limon from leaving.

THE AVENUE  |  FASHION

Spring brings color therapy, cheer

By STEPHANIE GRANADA | Jan. 7, 2009

The malls were packed, elaborate sale signs hung decoratively in store windows and anxious souls swarmed the racks searching for the perfect gifts to go under the tree, but nobody bought much. Despite the garland and 20-inch snowflakes, shoppers were in unprecedentedly low spirits this holiday season.

Florida Alligator
THE AVENUE  |  SEX

Rekindling fall flame

By ASHLEY ROSS | Jan. 7, 2009

Ah, winter break. Plenty of time to catch up with old friends, chill with the family, cozy up in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa and mess around with the new iPhone or Blackberry Storm. But while you'd think all of these things would keep you busy, your mind is still stuck on what's-her-name or 'the boy,' also known as your fall fling.

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