By Aaron Light
Staff Writer

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds came to San Francisco Sept. 19, bringing their doom and gloom post-punk to a sold out show at the newly reopened Warfield Theatre.  In a set that favored their fourteenth and most recent album, “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, the 51-year-old Cave showed he can still put on a hell of a show.

Dressed in a black suit and sporting a Fu Manchu-mustache, Cave spent the two-hour set letting loose his inner rock messiah as he sang his sex, religion and violence-drenched tales of depravity and madness. Highlights included a ripping version of 1992’s “Papa Won’t Leave You Henry”, an apocalyptic blues version of 1988’s “The Mercy Seat”, and a nasty “Stagger Lee” that closed the set.

Throughout the show, the Bad Seeds proved to be an amazing backing band, creating the base for Cave’s crazed grandeur as they laid down tight rhythms and never once broke character as stoic messengers of death and destruction.  Warren Ellis, Cave’s right-hand man, drenched almost every song in waves of brutal noise, conjured up from a heavily distorted Fender Mandocaster.

My only qualms with the show were the sound mix, in which instruments like pianos and bass were lost in favor of the constant noise Ellis emitted from the side of the stage, and the space distancing Cave from the crowd. Even though a barrier kept the crowd about a yard back from the stage, Cave did his best to attack the issue head-on, making as much physical contact with the first few rows as he could.

By Aaron Light
Staff Writer

The Bug is the current recording alias of Kevin Martin, a prolific London producer who has worked in the
experimental electronica and hip hop scene for the past 11 years. London Zoo is his new album, a foray into dubstep, an electronic music genre characterized by sparse rhythms, an emphasis on bass and a generally bleak atmosphere. It is packed with enough vitriolic hate to fill five Eminem albums and more nihilism than ten albums by any given black metal band. Dizzyingly claustrophobic and off puttingly minimal, London Zoo reverberates with deep bass rumbles, industrial percussion, space age synthesizers and some of the downright nastiest and angriest verses I have heard in a long time.

The album opens with “Angry,” featuring vocals by reggae legend Tippa Irie. “So many things that get me angry, so many things that get me mad,” Irie raps over an incessantly thumping dancehall beat before going off on just what in the world gets him so pissed off. “America is a big super power. They shoulda been there within the hour,” he sings about hurricane Katrina.

“Skeng,” featuring British rappers Flowdan and Killa P is the highlight of the album. It starts as half-unintelligible rapping about all the guns they have, but takes a darkly humorous turn with some bad ass lyrics: “Sword… Sword… Shot in the face like dart in a board . Worse… Worse… Shot in the face, make you scream for a nurse. Nurse… Nurse… Doctor can’t fix you, send for the hearse.”

With “You And Me” and “Freak Freak” the album lags a bit in the middle. Both of these songs meander aimlessly, their simple beats and ominous effects doing more to bore than provoke. But the low points are few, and London Zoo soon picks up again with “Poison Dart,” one of two tracks on the album featuring Warrior Queen, who sounds like M.I.A. if she spent more time listening to Rage Against The Machine and less time collaborating with Diplo.

London Zoo sounds different from any other album released this year, most of which have been merely passable, with only a few true standouts. In fact, London Zoo leaves everything else in the dust! So give it a listen—sit back, relax and let The Bug swarm into your eardrums.

By Jessica Luthi

Editor

The start page for Google Chrome doesn’t start blank but includes your most visited Web sites, recent bookmarks and recently closed tabs. The grid format is similar to Opera’s speed dial feature. IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE

Everyone uses a different browser for surfing the web and what may work for one person may not necessarily work for someone else. I, too, am no different for having a preference for browsing the Web: I am a Firefox gal. Now, I am not biased against other browser maybe with the exception of Internet Explorer (who’s constant crashes drove me nuts) or Netscape, a browser that is so slow that even the Slowskys (the turtles featured in Comcast’s High-Speed Broadband commercials) would complain.

Early this month, to my surprise Google launched Chrome, it’s first Web browser. An open source project, Chrome is still in beta and currently only available for download on the Windows platform. But don’t lose heart Linux and Mac users, Google is currently developing versions of Chrome for your operating systems too. In every beta project there are bound to be some problems such as security vulnerabilities, or other bugs but surprisingly, Google Chrome has very few of either.

Chrome itself has a pretty simple design and is much faster, in terms of bringing up a windows and loading sites, than my beloved Firefox. When you first start Chrome, you’ll see an empty grid which is similar to Opera’s speed dial feature with several exceptions. With Opera you have to drag your favorite Web sites in the speed dial. Chrome, on the other hand remembers the sites that you visit the most and puts into the grid and is updated every time that you log on to the Internet. The other cool thing about the grid page is it includes your most recent bookmarks and search bar all in one spot.

Searching the Internet is important, but more important than having the ability to search is the tool that you use to search. With Chrome you can just search right in the address bar instead of having doing the extra step of going to your search engine of choice. In my case, it’s Google.

Chrome has some other pretty cool features, including: crash prevention, which allows users to close a tab that is not responding without having to close the entire browser; a nifty download bar at the bottom of the page; dynamic tabbed browsing, which allows users to drag tabs out of an existing window creating a new window; incognito mode, a privacy feature which allows users to browse the web without the browser remembering where you’ve been once the user has logged off; and desktop shortcuts, which allows users to add a quick shortcut icon to their desktop, start menu or task bar.

I have used many of the popular browsers including IE, Netscape and Opera. But I think Google has a good chance of competing with the browser elite when all of the major bugs are worked out and a final version is released. Overall, the Google browser is much better than some of the industry leaders. It is fast, simple and has some really cool features. This browser is solid and almost worth switching for. Almost.

BY DESMOND MILLER
EDITOR

Uncanny X-Men #501
Written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction
Art by Greg Land

It’s very rare in comics when they decide to take a character or characters out of their regular surrounding. So when it was announced that the X-Men would be moving for the east coast (up state New York) to the west coast (the Bay Area) everyone was intrigued.

The X-titles have never had a hard time getting fans especially after 3 movies. So why change the formula? Who knows honestly, all we can expect is new and interesting stories.

Most feel that we will get those because the two writers, Brubaker and Fraction, have been in the business of shaking up stasis quo’s and this one is just what the doctor ordered.

Legion of 3 Worlds #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by George Perez and Scott Koblish

Out of that crisis’s that DC Comics have had the last few years, it’s amazing that anyone can get excited about anything that has to do with the destruction of the universe.

Well, color me shock when I found out that DC was doing a tie-in that I was actually excited about.

The story is actually the continuing saga of Earth Prime Superboy’s journey to find his perfect earth. What started more then a decade ago, looks like it could finally come to an end in the far future.

Superboy, after being blown to the future, wakes and finds that he is in the future of the Legion of Super Villains and he is their savior. Meanwhile in another dimension the Legion of Superheroes contacts Superman in the past and brings him forward in time to help them stop Superboy.

Confused? Well don’t be, Geoff Johns is a fantastic writer who is known to weave fantastic comic book tales and with legendary artist George Perez on pencils this mini will be out of this world.

BY JESSICA LUTHI
EDITOR

The new version of Quark’s desktop publishing software, QuarkXpress 8, may be superior to previous releases, but it still falls short of Adobe’s InDesign CS3 intuitive interface and usability.

This doesn’t mean that QuarkXpress is inferior to InDesign, the new release has many great changes. The biggest difference Quark users will notice is the new look of the interface. All original tools and functions are the same, but they are more aesthetically appealing. Let’s face it, Quark hasn’t updated their interface for nearly 20 years – this was way overdue. Not only has the interface changed, but now Quark has integrated the ability to edit flash without having to switch between programs.

Unfortunately you can’t edit files that you’ve saved in Quark with Adobe Flash. That’s OK, who would do that anyway, right? Another cool thing is you can build web pages, presentations and interactive web tools too.

The makers of Quark claim that you can work much faster with the new release. I disagree, it’s not faster than InDesign. I’m a designer, who works with different types of software, and I found this version of QuarkXpress easier to use then previous release. Still, some things are just impossible to do quickly using Quark. For instance, the “runaround” feature, which allows a user to run text around a image or graphic, is still difficult to use. InDesign makes this so much easier, with the push of a button you can wrap the text and that’s it.

Personally, I’m going to stick with InDesign. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally knocking Quark. The new release is awesome, but InDesign still reigns supreme in my book.

By Desmond Miller-Editor

OK, Will Smith wants to be a superhero now…I’ll buy that. It’s pretty much the way everyone will feel after seeing his new movie “Hancock”.

The movie stars Will Smith as John Hancock, an amnesiac superman who can do anything he wants to – it’s just that he doesn’t get along with people. This presents a problem not only when you are trying to save them, but also at the cost of millions of dollars worth of property damage.

So that’s the plot of the movie; an unlikable superman who has to find his place in a world where he is alone…or isn’t he?

I won’t go into any spoilers because I liked the movie and I feel that most movie goers will enjoy it too.

The one problem I do have is that Will Smith needs to learn how to walk the fine line between funny and dramatic. When he is funny he is golden, but when he has to switch to drama it seems awkward, like he doesn’t know what’s expected of him. If he can overcome this, he honestly could become the next Tom Hanks.

Good luck Mr. Smith.

By Jim Patterson-Staff Writer

Jimmy Buffett has a new novel on the bestseller lists. Unfortunately it is a real stinker. This is sad news for me, because I enjoy Buffett’s music and I enjoyed his earlier bestsellers. This time he fails his fans.

Swine Not? A Novel Pig Tale is Buffett’s latest creative writing exercise with a very slim plot. A Tennessee mother takes her son and daughter to live in a ritzy New York hotel when she lands a job in the hotel’s restaurant. Oh, and they bring their pet pig, Rumpy, along with them.

The new job is just right for both family and pig. Rumpy is looking for her long lost brother Lukie and she believes he is in New York. What a coincidence!

Since the hotel bars “exotic animals,” the family has to keep Rumpy hidden. They live in a glass house on top of the hotel, trying to hide the pig from the hotel chef who is out for fresh pork in the form of Rumpy.

You’re saying: “What were you thinking when you agreed to review this book, Jim?” Good question. I thought it’d be non-stop pig jokes. I was wrong. Buffett uses the plot to advance his story to an outrageous ending. But the plot is unbelievable, as a result adult readers won’t give a damn whether Rumpy ever finds Lukie.

Young adult readers may find the book a bit more appealing. However, there are far better books for them to enjoy.

Swine Not? should have never been written. Buffett should have thrown the idea for this book to the pigs.

Swine Not? A Novel Pig Tale (Little, Brown) by Jimmy Buffett, $21.99, 234 pages.