Artist: José James
Album: No Beginning, No End
Rating: 4

The third album by Minneapaolis-born Neo-Soul vocalist José James can be likened to a tall, ponderous cup of coffee, full bodied, warm and stirring throughout. That being said, the individual tracks on NBNE consistently rise above the pleasantly unengaging sounds of most café music. It is clear that there is a singular talent behind the vocals of James, and there is an older jazz sensibility being adhered to in some ways — instead of singing over arrangements, James becomes part of the instrumentation of the band, falling and rising with the rhythm and melody. This is especially apparent on standout track “Vanguard,” which combines the radiant emotion of soul music with the complexity of modern jazz.

The mixture of these various styles and influences contributes to a rich experience that, although highly evocative of other artists at times, is a solid and genuine work by someone with great skill and greater potential. The album will see its official release on January 22 as a major label debut on the illustrious jazz label Blue Note Records, and is certain to gain a wider domestic audience for James, who has already found much acclaim in Europe and Japan.

Give These Tracks a Listen: “Vanguard,” “It’s All Over Your Body”
For Fans Of: Jamiroquai, Marvin Gaye, D’Angelo

— Andrew Russell

Game of the week

This week marks the first big video game release of 2013 with DmC: Devil May Cry. The new entry in the series is both a reboot and the first Devil May Cry game in five years.

Development duties shifted from Capcom to Ninja Theory, and to say the change generated controversy would be an understatement. But early reviews indicate that the core formula of fast-paced and stylish action remains in place. What has changed is protagonist Dante, who sports a radical new design, and the story/writing, which aims for a more tongue-in-cheek approach.

Effectively creating a self-conscious narrative that dives into the absurd without becoming too ridiculous is a difficult balance to maintain, but I have to applaud Ninja Theory for making the effort. Despite enjoying the series, I felt like it hit a wall with Devil May Cry 4. With that being the case, any attempt to pump life into the series at this point seems like a risk worth taking.

Whether or not the result is satisfactory remains to be seen on my part, but I look forward to trying DmC out in the next week or two.

This week in news

Vice President Joe Biden met with representatives of the video game industry last Friday to discuss gun violence in the U.S., but the story is still at the top of headlines this week.

In the wake of the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. last month, Biden has increased his efforts to limit gun-related violence in the U.S. Part of that effort was to invite video game industry representatives such as EA CEO John Riccitiello and Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg to analyze the role of video games in our culture.

One researcher present at the meeting was quick to point out that Biden was not placing blame on video games and even mentioned the lack of evidence connecting gun violence to the entire medium. Rather, the meeting took place in order to look at the image of video games and their perception by the public at large.

During the meeting, Biden asked representatives to comment on ways in which the image of video games could be improved. The format took the representatives by surprise, but it seems like a fair question and a thoughtful discussion worth having in the coming months.

ANTHONY LABELLA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Local Celtic music band Riggity Jig has been making appearances around Davis, charming audiences with their upbeat Celtic tunes since 2000. An unassuming quintet of local musicians, David Riggs, Lee Riggs, Jim Coats, Josh Ray and Kyle Wallin, are as fun-spirited as the music they play, and they have successfully infiltrated various parties and events around town. Students might even recognize Lee and Coats, members of UC Davis staff. Haggis-eaters, Burns readers and whisky-drinkers will have the fortune of catching a whiff of these Celtic musicians at Little Prague Jan. 25 for Robert Burns Night — a night of poetry, bagpipes, free Haggis and general Scottish indulgence.

MUSE: How did your band first take shape?
D. Riggs: We’ve been together since 2000, as just a group of friends — or brothers in some instances — liking a certain kind of music and deciding to play it together. Jim and I played in a local bluegrass band, a band that was a little too vocal-based, and we were looking for something that was more instrumental. Jim was ready to move onto a new musical challenge, so we got together and started hammering out some of this music. Changing from bluegrass to Celtic is a sort of natural musical regression. Lee was a flute player so we asked him to give it a shot. He and Jim were getting together at the arboretum, playing the penny whistle, scaring the ducks. It’s a great place to practice.

Coats: The three of us are the core of the group, and other people have come and gone and added to the repertoire. We’ve added raucous, ribald, saucy, salacious (not too salacious) and pseudo-intellectual musical characters.

How would you describe yourselves as performers?
L. Riggs: We’re performing because we enjoy it, and we hope the audience enjoys it. We tend to play at parties as sort of background music, though sometimes it might turn into something more like a concert.

Coats: Live audiences react differently each time. Sometimes people are just talking and drinking, but we also enjoy it when people get up and dance. We usually get good feedback, and we enjoy performing, which is why we continue to do it.

What is Riggity Jig’s creative process?
L. Riggs: We cover some contemporary stuff and some traditional folk music that goes back 200 or 300 years. There are variations of some of the songs in America, but in Scotland or Ireland they’re very similar to the originals. Real folk music does change a little bit because it’s passed on over the years, often across different countries, and musicians have changed different elements of the original song to suit their tastes. So we pick up songs everywhere, even from the Celtic band that plays in the film Titanic.

D. Riggs: If we hear a set of tunes that we like, we get together and practice them. We’re not exactly a dynamic leader-led band. Things get thrown in gradually.

What got you interested in Celtic music?
Coats: For me, it’s just fun to play. A lot of it is dance music; it’s snappy, perky and fun. You get the whole culture thing — haggis, kilts, Guinness — it’s a fun culture. I played bluegrass, Irish and Scottish music. They all have similar musical qualities. I had been listening to Celtic music for years and had been playing for so long that I thought I could pick it up.

What is Robert Burns Night, and what’s happening at Little Prague?
Coats: It’s is a celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns on the anniversary of his birthday. Scots call Burns “The Bard” instead of Shakespeare. At a Robert Burns supper, you will have people recite his poems to celebrate.

L. Riggs: It’s a fun event because a lot of different people come out to celebrate, but it doesn’t get as rowdy as St. Patrick’s Day. People show up in kilts and we play a lot of fun folk-based music.

D. Riggs: Here, the night is a rallying point for ex-pat Scots. Little Prague will be serving traditional Scottish food, including free haggis, which you should try if you dare, and there will be a Burns poetry reading, Scotch whiskey tasting, and music. Burns Night is a good reason to party — sort of like Cinco de Mayo, but with kilts and whiskey.

Listen to Riggity Jig play and celebrate the poet Robert Burns at Little Prague Bohemian Restaurant, Jan. 25 from 6 to 10 p.m.

CRISTINA FRIES can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Too cheap to see it in theaters and too impatient to wait for it to come out on Netflix On Demand, I streamed Pitch Perfect on my laptop at what might have been the lowest resolution in existence. As the movie progressed, I slowly realized that my friend’s frequent demands and mock whining about the slow internet connection would have probably been a better use of my theoretical $10.50. In the end we both agreed — the .gifs were better than the movie itself.

The characters felt kind of underdeveloped, their relationships flat and the dialogue forced. But I wasn’t irked so much by the fact that the movie was bad — I was more put off by two specific aspects of the movie. And those were the characters Cynthia Rose and Stacie, a.k.a. “The Predatory Lesbian” and “The Stupid Horny Girl With Big Boobs.”

Throughout the movie, Cynthia Rose and Stacie remain as background characters in the general plot and only step forward to portray themselves as living caricatures. Stacie is always grabbing her breasts, making seductive faces at the camera and using every dance move as an opportunity to give herself a full-body rub-down. In one scene wherein the characters are sharing confessions, she utters, “I’ll confess something. I have a lot of sex.” “Yeah, we know,” is the eye-rolling reply. Her response to this systematic devaluation of something she considers a secretive confession is a vapidly ignorant, “Only because I just told you so.”

Cynthia Rose, originally mistaken by the cast as a “dude” (and then referred to as “it” when revealing a feminine name), barely makes any noticeable appearances in the movie. The few times that Cynthia Rose is brought to center stage is when she’s expressing sexual interest towards Stacie. We see her interacting suggestively with the busty brunette in several scenes — one where she’s unsubtly checking out a mid-downward dog Stacie, another where she grinds on her during an acca-promptu rendition of Rihanna’s “S&M.” “Oh,” you think, “maybe the plot twist is going to be that they’re both lesbians, and they hook up with each other at the end! How predictable, yet progressive, of the screenwriters.”

Well Cynthia Rose must have been thinking the same thing as all of us here in the audience, because she makes the move anticipated. However, poor Stacie is, apparently for the first time ever, totally not DTF, and ends up frantically blowing her Barton University rape whistle while getting half-humped and fully groped by our aforementioned libidinous lesbian.
Well, shit. There goes years of fighting for equality, recognition and freedom from negative stereotyping.

How are we supposed to move past the Mean Girls-esque fear of lesbians scoping out straight girls in swimsuits when this movie tells us they’ll force themselves on the hottest girl on hand? How are we supposed to make curvy girls feel less like slabs of meat and more like people when this movie tells us that they have low IQs and 24/7 sex drives? Girls with big boobs will screw anything that moves, right? And lesbians will aggressively try and get in your pants whether or not you’re queer or interested, right?

Fuck. No.

People are people, not their stereotypes. But not everyone gets that. Some girls are still scared they’ll get their carpet munched while changing for PE. Dudes still think they’ll get their dicks sucked if you’re stacked a double-D. It is a shame that these assumptions already exist in our society, and tropes like the ones presented in Pitch Perfect sure as hell aren’t helping.

TANYA AZARI can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Artist: The Lone Bellow
Album: The Lone Bellow
Rating: 4.5/5

Dear readers, to gain my musical favor an album must do more than tickle my fancy (all connotations implied). Sure I may toss it a few complimentary bones, but to truly be a blessed member of Gerber’s musical athenaeum an album must woo me. I’ll have you know I, literally, purchased this album.

Without further gilding the lily I’d like to introduce the new self-titled album from The Lone Bellow. They present beautiful vocals and a clear desire to experiment with their range. Though you will invariably compare them with another breakout star Mumford and Sons, I can’t complain about having more amazing alternative folk invading our airwaves. I’ve even been showing this album to my friends, dare I become so presumptuous to claim familial companionship, and though none have yet responded to whether they’ve heard the new bird’s word, I suspect they will be pleased. Or block my number. Either way such amazing tracks as “You Never Need Nobody,” “The One You Should Have Let Go” and “Button” would have pervaded their lives and for that they should thank me. “Button” has an old bluesy feel I’d like to see them further explore.

So be gone, listen to The Lone Bellow. Feast your tired heart on their musical accompaniment and be merry.

Check out these tracks: “You Never Need Nobody,” “The One You Should Have Let Go,” “Button”
For fans of: Mumford & Sons

– BEAUGART GERBER

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend and review Anything Goes at The Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Anything Goes is a revival of the 1987 Broadway rewrite while still featuring music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

The story focuses on two unlikely pairings on the S.S. American, a ship on which numerous hilarious moments and ridiculous situations occur throughout the show. Hope Harcourt, played by Alex Finke, is an heiress engaged to a wealthy man as well as the affection of a stowaway’s love.

Alex Finke is originally from Ohio and a recent graduate of the University of Michigan theatre program. She literally graduated half a year ago and is already performing professionally alongside veterans of Broadway theatre — quite inspiring and impressive, no?

I had the pleasure of watching Finke perform last week from my complimentary second-row seats, and I had the chance to interview this recent college graduate on her ridiculously fast journey to Broadway and her experience thus far on tour.

MUSE: How did you get this job and so fast?

FINKE: The University of Michigan theatre program takes all of its seniors and puts on a showcase in New York City every year. I was approached and asked to audition for the show, and after multiple callbacks, I was offered the part. I even saw the show to prepare for the auditions, just to make sure I knew what skills to present.

MUSE: When did you know you wanted to have a career in musical theatre, and if you hadn’t, what do you think you’d be doing right now instead?

FINKE: I’ve been dancing since I was six, putting on concerts in the basement, and I even taught myself the choreography to Cats from the video. It wasn’t really a career option until junior year of high school. I enjoy science and I could’ve been a teacher or gone into something medical, but this is something I had a love for. If I didn’t try and go for it, I would always wonder what would’ve happened if I had given it a shot.

MUSE: How was it, being in one of the top theatre programs in the nation?

FINKE: It was a great place to be because you would think that a place with a “top school” reputation would be a certain way … but no, it’s a family. It’s not competitive in a malicious way. Everyone is positive and encouraging. There is a lot of focus on education as an individual instead of putting you in specific slots as a performer. The most challenging part of school was going through every day — going to classes and then performing. It’s kind of like you’re naked, because you’re brave enough to perform and get critiqued. You’re growing as a person and a performer. It’s a bizarre journey.

MUSE: Anything you miss about college? Where are your friends from school now?

FINKE: I miss going to football games. I miss having friends live a couple of blocks away. College is a great time, but there’s also so much to be excited about. My class is doing really well. People are auditioning and getting call backs. Some people are exploring television and film. For the number of students there are, there is a solid percentage that are working. My class was 23 people. They try to keep it around 10 women and 10 men.

MUSE: What does the cast do after each show?

FINKE: A lot of people are hungry, so we’ll grab a late bite. If your adrenaline level is still high, we go to someone’s hotel room, watch a movie and hang out. I’m really mellow. We’re lucky that we have such a warm company and that everyone is close to everyone in a different way. I really enjoy hanging around veterans who have so many stories and perspectives to tell. Watching them every day is a lesson in the craft.

MUSE: What have you enjoyed most about touring?

FINKE: I’ve been loving the traveling. In Arizona, we did a lot of hiking. In terms of performing, opening night in Cleveland was magical. The whole experience, I’ve been in disbelief. Even in rehearsals, I’m pinching myself. On the first night, I walked out on stage and fully realized that I’m doing this and it’s real and the whole journey is in front of me.

MUSE: What are your career goals? What are your plans after the tour is over?

FINKE: There is so much ahead of me. I’ve been so lucky to have had this opportunity so young. I want to make NYC feel like home, and I’m really excited to make the move. I want to audition for projects down the line, and I would love to be a lead in a musical on Broadway. I’m very open to where my career will take me. I would love to do it all.

Anything Goes is in San Francisco until Feb. 3.

ELIZABETH ORPINA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.