Shari Weiss

Four years after Linkin Park’s last album, the band released Minutes to Midnight, which shows a marked departure from their previous formula. Some people call it growth. I say tomato, you say tomatoe. Gone is the rap-rock sound that made Linkin Park…

If there’s one thing Taking Back Sunday does right, it’s put on a good concert. A band known as much for its onstage antics (one of them sustained a gash to the head thanks to a free-wheeling microphone) as its music, Taking Back Sunday is preparing…

Man, these guys are gonna shit their pants,” Nick Kanellis says while painting his face. Kanellis is in the men’s dressing room of the Louis Theater at Northwestern. He’s preparing for … a dodge ball game? The 21-year-old Communication senior is…

Michelle Nolan wants to make one thing clear: Straylight Run is not a Victory Records band. “There’s a lot of connotations that come with that label,” says the 26-year-old guitarist and pianist from Long Island. “People hear Victory Records and think…

Chris Carrabba’s loyal fans might say Dashboard Confessional’s Oct. 27 concert is further proof of his immense talent – they couldn’t be more right. Carrabba made his backup band permanent Dashboard members on his latest release, Dusk And Summer.…

The Early November blew other emo bands out of the water this summer with the release of a triple-album – three brand-new CDs – at the same time, in one package. The Drive-Thru Records quintet produced an epic number of remarkable songs, setting the…

You think you know, but you have no idea – how to get casted on MTV’s “The Real World.” OK, so maybe right network, wrong overused catchphrase – still accurate logic. The casting directors couldn’t even put into words precisely what it takes (“stand…

NORMAN KORPI Norman Korpi had the pleasure of being on the inaugural season of “The Real World.” Korpi, however, says he’s more inclined to call it a displeasure. As a member of the first seven strangers picked to live in a house, Korpi was a guinea…

It’s easy to wonder if Victory Records band The Junior Varsity has a “Rob Us!” sign on their tour van. The group, originally formed in Bloomington, Ill., was robbed about five separate times recently. “I’ve had my passport stolen,” guitarist Andy…

With its fate hanging in the balance, Everwood returned to the WB Monday night, rewarding viewers with a two-hour episode. Why the big hullabaloo? When the new CW (a combination of the “best” of the WB and UPN networks) premieres in the fall,…

The original Broadway cast of Rent will reunite April 24 for a one-time benefit show in commemoration of the drama’s 10th anniversary. Tickets start at $1,000. For us peons who can’t afford such prices, Rent is now on DVD, featuring most of the…

At eight years old, children generally have a firm grasp on the art of reading. Well, assuming you’re reading your own language, that is. SESP freshman Tatiana Rostovtseva should have been enjoying second grade in her hometown of Nizhny Novgorod,…