Most Popular
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Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
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Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
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Barack Obama and Me (246)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (13)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Rotten to the Corps: A Question of Justice at Texas A&M (140)
Thanks to A& M and a district attorney, two cadets escape punishment for beating in a student's face
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (6)
All This Useless Beauty
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
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Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is
Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.
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The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson
"La La" Love You
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Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
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A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
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Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
06:06AM 03/09/08 -
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
03:54PM 03/07/08 -
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
04:12PM 03/07/08 -
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
11:40AM 03/08/08
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Recent Articles By Annie Zaleski
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Nine Inch Nails
Year Zero
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An interview with the band
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The Killers
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National Features
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SF Weekly
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Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
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Dense and challenging, Neon Bible is worth the effort.
Subject(s): Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is a dense, academic and ultimately rewarding album fixated on questions of spirituality, religion and the concept of self -- and more specifically, how to reconcile these things in a bleak world where uncertainty is the norm, hope seems dead, and God isn't exactly benevolent. (That is, if she exists at all.) Bible's outlook is rife with the terror of blankness and darkness: The string-buoyed swoon "Windowsill" says "the tide is high, and it's rising still," while "Black Mirror" -- a thunderstorm-like musical cousin to Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" -- speaks of "waking from a nightmare to see no moon, no pale reflection." Explicit references to wars, bombs, and a vaguely sinister "they" also abound, as if physical violence, if not spiritual nihilism or Big Brother, threatens the world's livelihood. This approach is quite a change from the group's 2004 breakthrough, Funeral, which ruminated heavily on aging and rebirth from a perspective of possibility. Unsurprisingly, Bible lacks the Talking Heads-like playfulness and jug-band jubilation of Funeral, and there's nothing as gut-punching as "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" or as catchy as "Rebellion (Lies)." In fact, Bible sounds more like a somber funeral than Funeral does; minor chords, cherubic harmonies, and sprawling, chilly string and horn arrangements combine for fire-and-brimstone hymns and stormy sea lullabies. But the album isn't boring; it's just more subtle, more challenging, more immense, and a quintessential headphones album.
