Fans hungry for the second effort of underground metal hybrid Down should head to any music store and pick up the band's latest album, "II." For those unfamiliar, Down is Black Sabbath-meets-Pantera. The group features five guys from four different bands....

With all the redundancy of pop music, it can be hard to find something fresh. On the Great Plains Gypsies' latest release, "Ride the Blinds," the music is not only fresh, but also inventive. The album is a collection of 12 stripped-down tracks that range...

This is Benjamin, and he's a little worried about his future. A young man set to graduate is trying to find his way in a chaotic and obtuse world. For answers, he sleeps with family friend Mrs. Robinson and her daughter Elaine. Now that sounds like a...

Soul Asylum showed Otto's Niteclub, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, its usual song and dance Saturday night. Audience members eagerly cheered the band onto stage at 11:15 p.m., but the excitement subsided as the band launched into its first song. Most people...

A concert is actually sold out in DeKalb. Multi-platinum rapper Snoop Dogg will perform Wednesday night at Otto's Niteclub, 118 E. Lincoln Highway. Not only will Snoop, also known as Calvin Brodus, be the most popular rapper to strut a stage in DeKalb,...

In honor of the appearance of Snoop Dogg at Otto's Niteclub on April 10, the M.O.O.S.E. wanted to highlight one of the Dogg's mentors and boyhood idols, Slick Rick. "Lodi Dodi," off of the platinum-selling "Doggystyle" album, was a cover of Slick Rick's....

Jodie Foster is my hero. Playing the character Meg Altman in the current box-office giant, "Panic Room"(Columbia, R), this reclusive actress stops everyone who's ever sneered at the phrase "single mother" dead in their tracks with her powerful performance....

"Shuffleplay and the Mutations," the first release from the local band of the same name spawned from the area, is a cornucopia of different sounds and genres. The independently produced six-song EP (plus an intro) combines the loungey tones of the Coctails,...

The opportunity for local bands to battle for local supremacy is here again. The annual Battle of the Bands competition will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., April 20, at Central Park, located between Stevenson and Grant Towers. The eight bands chosen...

The Michael Jay Washington Trio strives to quench artistic thirsts with its unique brand of liquid jazz. Strategically billed for Monday nights under the appropriate genre of "sooth jazz," this all-string trio eases away stress from the Monday Shock Syndrome...

Have you ever sniffed a pony's butt? In 1982, kids throughout the country had their noses pressed up against the vinyl tush of My Little Pony. The sweetly scented buttocks of My Little Pony gave off the fragrances of peaches and berries. It was the pony...

Art enthusiasts from the community and NIU gathered at the Art Building March 21 for a proposal presentation given by Karen McCoy, an NIU alumna and head of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her piece, "The DeKalb County Farmland Project," will...