PROVIDENCE

Vampire Weekend | Contra

XL (2010)
There are a few words I did not expect to use in describing Vampire Weekend's second album. Paul-Simony-er is one of them.

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 11, 2010

The Steadfast Mr. Shelton. Plus, vetoing The Don and doubting Linc.
Since P&J heard that our friend Henry Shelton had suffered a stroke on December 28, we have joined tens of thousands of other Vo Dilunduhs, in praying for his full and speedy recovery.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 06, 2010

Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Ledger-demain: Gilliam leaves nothing to the Imaginarium
Few filmmakers have suffered from the life-imitates-art phenomenon as has Terry Gilliam.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 11, 2010

Review: In Search of Beethoven

Deaf jam
Phil Grabsky's exhaustive documentary doesn't exactly dispel any stereotypes about Beethoven's being a shaggy genius prone to rages.

By SHAULA CLARK | January 06, 2010

Review: Daybreakers

Vampires, weakened
For evidence of the breakdown of the capitalist system, look no farther than the proliferation of vampire and zombie movies.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2010

Review: Youth In Revolt

Michael Cera hardly revolutionary
Juno continues to poison American independent cinema.

By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2010

More than Mormons

The big love that dare not speak its name
Despite the comparably juicy family dysfunction it offers, Big Love hasn't achieved the iconic status of its HBO predecessor The Sopranos . Maybe viewers relate better to the mob than to Mormons.

By JOYCE MILLMAN | January 06, 2010

Shout it out!

Sharks Come Cruisin’ corner the punk rock/sea shanty market
Sharks Come Cruisin' founder Mark Lambert is a Warwick native with a penchant for reworking and penning sea shanties from centuries past, often revised with rollicking punk flare — all thanks to the golden pipes of Quint, the shark-obsessed skipper in Jaws .

By CHRIS CONTI | January 06, 2010

Shake some action

Off the Couch
Psych + sludge + metal + more

By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 05, 2010

Of Doctor Tremendanus and the giant furry jellyfish

Monsters, Inc.
It was New Year’s Eve and in the belly of the Roxy nightclub, away from the teeming Bright Night crowds, there were monsters on the loose: creatures with protruding noses, googly eyes, and spindly legs.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | January 06, 2010

10-4, Good Buddies

Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
What do you do about a guy who gives you really expensive and thoughtful gifts?

By DR. LOVEMONKEY | January 05, 2010

Joey Ramone remembered

Long Live Rock Dept.
On top of everything else that was a drag about the decade just past, there was this: in a three-and-a-half-year span, we lost three quarters of the Ramones. And then CBGB closed.

By MIKE MILIARD | January 06, 2010

Evidence of white trash found on red planet

Hoopleville
The Yankee Yard comes to Mars

By DAVID KISH | January 07, 2010

Party like it’s 2010

Get your New Year’s Eve on — and hit the ground running on New Year’s Day
Your usual lackadaisical approach to New Year's Eve — just see what happens and go with the flow — is not going to cut it this year. So to help you make this one count, here are some sure-thing NYE happenings, and some suggestions for the first day of '10.

By JIM MACNIE | January 06, 2010

Kabuki

Cuisine off the beaten path
Japanese restaurants can be too predictable.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 30, 2009

Grumpy World

Happy? Not us! Plus, Pawtucket pride, saluting the navy, and a New Year’s toast.
P&J were strangely drawn to the story by Linda Borg in the Sunday BeloJo on the exceptionally low marks the Biggest Little received in a happiness index conceived by what we suspect are a bunch of elite jickies from across the pond for the journal Science (which is, after all, headquartered in Cambridge, England).

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 30, 2009

A casket gets some airtime

Deadly
Bert Harlow, woodworker and founder of the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts, made his own casket a few years ago. But he figured the pine box should get some use before he was nailed into it.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | December 30, 2009

Bienvenido a federal hill

Turnover
My grandfather's house still stands on Westminster Street in Providence, its yard overlooking the Armory field where my uncles would gather to play bocce.

By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | December 30, 2009

Kissing off 2009

The pressure to hook up on New Year's Eve is immense. Take it down a notch, and you may embrace 2010 with locked lips.
I had no New Year's kiss last year. I had fun, friends, a bonfire, and a bellyful of delicious food, but no kiss.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 06, 2010

Split atop the RI Tea Party

Tea Time
The Rhode Island Tea Party, a right-wing assemblage best known for its tax day rally against government spending on the State House steps, was until recently run by three women — Colleen Conley, Marina Peterson and, to a lesser degree, Nan Hayden. But no more.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 30, 2009