By: Brennan Carley

Some bands spend a grueling amount of time in the studio because they wish to create an album of the utmost perfection, a sonic revelation that will appease fans and critics alike while making strides in the field of music. Others, however, are perfectly content to stick to the sound that had millions flocking to them in the first place.

By: Brennan Carley

To the casual music listener, the name Noel Gallagher most likely elicits warm memories of the Oasis hit “Wonderwall.” The band, formed in 1991 in rainy Manchester, England, has become more commonly known for the bickering between the two front-men, Gallagher and his brother Liam. After several shutdowns and brawls, Oasis finally split for good in 2009. All of the band members except for Noel regrouped as Beady Eye and released their debut album earlier this year.

By: Brennan Carley

On Monday morning, the venerable New York Times food critic Sam Sifton, an elegant and gripping writer whose reviews quickly became a staple of my Wednesday mornings, traded his position for the more prestigious national editor.

By: Brennan Carley

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” Jason Katim shouted with tears in his eyes from the stage of the Emmy’s last month. It was moments after accepting the award for Best Writing in a Drama Series for Friday Night Lights, his tearjerker of a drama that for five rewarding seasons maintained a small but devoted audience who knew the show as the best of the bunch. It was wildly entertaining and packed pointed writing into a show that was never really about football.

By: Brennan Carley

Although actors who rap are not an anomaly in today’s multifaceted world of entertainment, Donald Glover has, in a seemingly swift amount of time, amassed both critical and mass adulation behind both of his careers.

By: Brennan Carley

After several minutes of uneasiness inside the closet, Saturday Night Live writer Mike O’Brien decided to just go for it, but Amy Poehler wasn’t messing around.

By: Brennan Carley

“Who is that?” screamed the little boy from atop his father’s shoulders as the sun set over the audience at the DCR Memorial Hatch Shell late on Saturday afternoon. He, among countless other families, college students, and dogs were part of the thousands-large crowd watching Boston’s annual MIXFest, free for the first time this year.

By: Brennan Carley

The saying “a little goes a long way” is rarely adhered to anymore, in an age where bigger means better. On Friday night, however, Cirque du Soleil’s revamped revival of its famous Quidam allowed a sparse, minimalistic show to fill the cavernous Agganis Arena. It was an enjoyable departure from the bombastic troop, one that never sacrificed sheer delight while scaling down.

By: Brennan Carley

With David Guetta, what you see is what you get. His music professes to be nothing more than party anthems, wriggling, wormlike songs that will eventually find a home in the retirement community that is the Now That’s What I Call Music series.

By: Brennan Carley

On Friday and Saturday evenings, a murder most foul took place in the O’Connell House as part of Superdead, the Creative Committee for Enactment’s annual celebration of all things zany and improvised. Upon entering the dimly lit mansion in the middle of Upper Campus, audience members were warned that the show was an interactive one in which the characters might directly address the audience, in which case showgoers were encouraged to interact with them.