Out from under the bright lights of New York City, Wu-Tang Clan's Chef Raekwon and Definitive Jux's C-Rayz Walz are set to rock Club Congress next Wednesday.

Walz is touring behind his critically acclaimed recent release Ravipops. Raekwon is gearing up ÷ tiger-style÷ for his third solo release, The Lex Dynasty, a return to lyrical form.

The Wildcat had the opportunity to profile the two very different MCs that share the same metropolis about what's on their mind and what's next. [Read article]

Califone has been to Tucson before, but this was before a new sound detonated in their latest album Quicksand/Cradlesnakes. Tim Rutili is the sweet talker for Califone. His voice is the music of old pipes; it stirs you from sleep, and makes you call out "who's there?" His lyrics are strange and beautiful: "braid your sins into its mane/ and kick it to the county line." Califone is music for driving on highways between barbed wire fences, for watching landscapes go by, and for folks going about their daily routines and thinking, "This world is amazing." [Read article]

I am the World Trade Center would be lost without their laptops. While on their way to their next show in Seattle, Amy Dykes, the duo's singer, was writing her master's thesis on their computer. Earlier during the drive, she and Dan Gellar, who plays keyboards, drum machines and various other instruments during their shows, used their laptop to write a new song, which they'll be debuting in a couple of hours. [Read article]

Kon Tiki
4625 Broadway Blvd.
Rating: 3.8 of 5

This throwback to another decade takes its theme up to and past the front door. To get in, patrons must first navigate through a lush Polynesian-style garden complete with koi pond and torches (OK, I'll marry the king's daughter, but please don't throw me into the volcano!).

Inside, Kon Tiki is littered with bamboo, lamps covered with cocktail umbrellas and, you guessed it, Tiki masks. [Read article]

The B-Line
621 N. 4th Ave.
882-7575 - (Call for takeout)
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Industrially chic B-Line offers an uptown alternative on bohemian, dive-driven 4th Ave.

The eatery gives patrons a breath of fresh air, even indoors, with open windows, modernist wooden table tops, frosted metal accents and cut flowers arranged around the restaurant. Feeling immediately revitalized from the smooth and sophisticated ambiance ÷ which doesn't give off a pretentious vibe ÷ I began to pick through the large chalkboard menu hanging on the wall by the cashier. [Read article]

Opera Lures In Students With Great Discount, Great Singing

The costumes will dazzle you. The music and dancing will overwhelm you with good feelings. The sets will astound you. The story may just warm your heart. And you (if you are a UA student) will be able to attend for half price, providing you go with a friend who is also a UA student. All this, and you don't even have to know how to speak French. All that you have to do is sit back and let the Arizona Opera entertain you with The Pearl Fishers at the Tucson Convention Center. [Read article]

Death Cab for Cutie
Transatlanticism
(Barsuk)
Sounds like: Smart indie emo rock
See also: The Long Winters, Badly Drawn Boy, Elliot Smith
Rating: 5.0

Death Cab for Cutie has always made pretty great albums. They've tweaked their indie-rock sound and evolved a bit after each one. Then they would come back with another solid album.

When a band is constantly changing and evolving, you figure they'll make an album that is heads and shoulders above their other great albums, the best album that the band could possibly make. Like OK Computer was for Radiohead. [Read article]

Rating: 1.5

To be read in a movie preview voice:

"Framed for a murder he didn't commit, investigated by a wife who he's just lost. Denzel Washington is 'Out of Time.'"

That's my new tagline for "Out of Time." Does it seem original? Does it seem like it would be impossible to decipher what possibly could happen in the end? I don't think so.

Washington is a small town Florida police chief who is trying to cover up his relationship with a murder victim, because someone has set him up so all the facts point to him. [Read article]

Family Weekend
Special Events

Last week, Roy Horn, of the famed Las Vegas duo Seigfreid and Roy, was attacked by one of his white tigers during a performance at the Mirage. I was saddened by this news, but I wasn't surprised. See, I'm going to let you in on a little secret of the animal kingdom: animals hate you.

But don't feel bad. Animals hate all humans. Why? Well, for one thing, we treat them like animals. We also ride them, milk them, experiment on them, make them do tricks, then arrest them and turn it into a TV show called "Animal Precinct." How embarrassing for them. Animals hate you for embarrassing them. [Read article]