Staff Writer

Being a musician, I have great respect for music and consider it a large portion of my life.  I enjoy numerous genres of music, spanning from blues to new wave. I would rather listen to a slick guitar solo then listen to “Party Rock Anthem.” I prefer a lengthy instrumental to a techno song. Lately I have been listening to a smorgasbord of tasty morsels. Here are a few recent personal favorites of mine in no particular order.

1. Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan's Can't Buy A Thrill

Released in 1972, this was the band’s debut album. It is the established the sleek, jazz rock sound that they are often associated with. All the  songs are well crafted pieces written by the duo of pianist/keyboardist Donald Fagen and bassist Walter Becker.

The album has a variety of songs, from an Eastern, sitar filled “Do it Again” to a Latin-Jazz romp “Only A Fool Would Say That.” Probably the most famous track off of this album would have to be the FM radio staple, “Reelin’ In The Years.” To this day, this remains to be one of their most popular tunes. This track contains two guitar solos provided by a great session musician named Elliot Randall. Randall also provided a guitar solo on the track Kings. Despite being the bands most beloved song, both Fagen and Becker claim to dislike the song. Elliot’s solos on “Reelin’ In The Years” garnered praise from many other musicians including Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin who has stated that it is his favorite guitar solo.

Overall this album, is an excellent jazz-rock album that brings everything to the table and leaves the listener satisfied.

Listen to: “Reelin’ In The Years,” “Only A Fool Would Say That,” “Fire In The Hole“

2. Rush’s 2112

After the commercial failure of Caress of Steel, Rush were experiencing a period of hardship. Caress of Steel was thought to be the trio’s breakthrough album. However it deviated from their previous album Fly by Night and alienated many of their devoted fans.  2112 was produced as a last stand of sorts. The band completed it believing that everyone would hate it, but as it turns out this was the breakthrough album they yearned for.

Rush's 2112

The album itself is dominated by the twenty minute progressive rock track 2112. The track is divided into seven sections or parts. The song tells a story beginning in the year 2112 in which the world is ruled under a totalitarian government called the Solar Federation. The government controls every facet from what people read to the songs they sing. An unnamed character finds a musical instrument of the “elder race” and learns to play it. This act of self expression is eventually put down by the higher powers and then the song draws to a close.

There are five other tracks on the album. Most of the others are just standard Rush, except for  “A Passage To Bangkok” and “Something For Nothing.” The album marries the complexity of progressive rock with the heavy, drive of hard rock into one, direct stream.

Listen to: “2112,” “Something For Nothing”

3. The Black Key’s El Camino

Released in December of 2011, this is a relatively new album. The duo of guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer/percussionist Patrick Carney have been producing albums for the past decade. Their blend of blues and garage rock helps to create their unique sound.

There is a total of eleven tracks on this album. However, this album relies less on blues and puts more emphasis on garage rock. The album also draws influence from genres such as soul, R &B and rockabilly.

The Black Keys El Camino

The one track that is the most memorable would have to be “Lonely Boy.” This was released as a single prior to the release of the album. It is a very catchy tune that resonates in the mind. The single was accompanied by a humorous video of actor/musician Derrick Tuggle dancing and  the lyrics of the song. Another track on the album, “Gold On The Ceiling,” is slated for release on February 27, 2012.

Listen to: “Lonely Boy,” “Nova Baby,” “Gold On The Ceiling”

4. Robert Johnson’s Complete Recordings

Released in 1990, this compilation album released all twenty-nine recordings made by the late blues great, Robert Johnson. The twenty-nine tracks were recorded over a period of a year beginning in 1936 and ending in 1937.

All the tracks have been remastered  from the original recordings. All of the tracks on the album were crucial in movement of the blues and eventually rock and roll. The most notable tracks include “Traveling Riverside Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago” and the blues standard “Crossroad Blues.” Almost every other blues artist or song has been influenced by Robert Johnson.

Listen to: “Sweet Home Chicago, “Crossroad Blues”, “Dust My Broom”

Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings

Some coaches have been coaching their sport for a number of years, including Philip Archambault, coaching WA boy’s indoor track for seventeen years. The boy’s track team is anticipating a successful season. Many boys are returning to run for the team and also a lot of new boys are starting to run for the team this year. Archambault hopes that the boys perform well at the Dual County League Championship.

Most impressive coaching longevity is Ed Scollan, who has been head coach for the boys’ varsity basketball team for twenty-six years. Scollan has the simple goal of game-by-game improvement. The solid team is lead by co-captains Matt Ellis and Ryan Jann, and includes several strong seniors and juniors. “We need to be ready to play each game never taking any opponent lightly. The DCL has some terrific teams with many talented players,” said Scollan.

As for the girl’s basketball team, coached by Russell Coward, the coach of four years is expecting to make it to the DCL Large and the state tournament. The team looks strong and has several star players returning, including Megan Kibblehouse, Hannah Hackley, and Sam Hyslip. “We have a very difficult schedule this year, so I expect we will have our ups and downs this season,” said Coward.

The girls swim team is also looking forward to a successful season, with many record-breaking swimmers expected to shine this year. These swimmers include Counteney Martin, Tori Weinstock, Jen Marrkand, and Kelly Huber.  Last year, the team was only thirteen points behind rivals Lincoln-Sudbury. Coach Caitlin Klick foresees the season “being very competitive in each meet that we enter.  With such a small group, the girls will have many chances to swim several races each meet, giving them each a better shot of qualifying for the Sectional and State championships.”

Coach Todd Fletcher of the WA girl’s ice hockey team is yet another team coming back from a great season last year. Their main goal is to make it to the MIAA state tournament again this season with the help of last year’s star players, including Stephanie Aro, Kim Lizotte, and Ali Difonzo on offense and Nicole Larsen, Katie Lowe, and Erin Mealey on defense.

Stephanie Anderson has coached the Westford Academy gymnastics team for the past two seasons. This will be her third. The team came in fifth place last year at sectionals and is looking forward to going back and coming in at least fourth. “I am also hoping to break the balance beam record, the one that has not been broken since 1993,” said Anderson. The coach is expecting Erin Auger and Caroline Liu. They are hopeful about their first meet on December 22.

Bob Carter, the coach of the boy’s hockey team has been at WA for sixteen years. Several new players have joined the team and also many returning players are in the mix. The team plays other teams in the Merrimack Valley League. The captain of the team is Pat Houghton and the co-captains consist of Justin Pawlowski, Matt Brett, Ian Speliotis. As a team, they are looking forward to the season’s challenges.

As the season begins to start, all of Westford Academy’s teams are looking forward to successful seasons. Whether the teams accomplish their pre-season goals or not, all the teams are looking forward to a fun, competition-filled winter.

Matt Miller

Staff Writer

When the word grunge comes to mind, what do you automatically assume? Some people would think of dirt or gravel. Others think of a sub-genre of rock music from the early- to mid-nineties. There were many acts that personified this genre, such as Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam. But the one band that left an indelible mark on this genre, as well as rock music as a whole, has to be Nirvana.

Formed in 1987 in the rainy city of Seattle, WA, Nirvana was a trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain, bassisist Krist Novoselic and drummer David Grohl. Their debut album, Bleach, was a moderate success, but was dwarfed in comparison to the 1991 followup release, Nevermind. Nevermind was a massive success and produced several top singles on the mainstream charts.

Considered to be their masterpiece, this album is both a quintessential grunge album and a classic rock album. Most of the songs are angst-ridden testaments to the oppressions of society. Nirvana’s use of dynamic changes is especially notable on this album. Many of their songs contain soft verses and then shift to loud, aggressive choruses.

The first four tracks of this album are considered to be their finest work and are their most popular songs.

The first track, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” is undeniably their most recognized song. It is a very alluring track. The lyrics are difficult to decipher due to their nonsensicality and Cobain’s slurred vocals. Many have interpreted this as a teen revolution anthem while others have cited it as a incomprehensible, slew of random lyrics that serve no meaning.

The next track, “In Bloom,” is a testament to the underground music audience of the early nineties.

The third track on the album, “Come As You Are,” is another fine example of Nirvana’s songwriting craft. Unlike the previous songs on the record, this song contains a lengthy guitar solo by Cobain. The solo is not that of a virtuoso, but it fits the piece. The song has been interpreted in a variety of ways, but Kurt Cobain stated that it is about people and what they are supposed to act like. It is a statement regarding non-conformity.

“Lithium” is an attack on the stability of the human mind. There is a lot of self-loathing going on in this song, as Kurt Cobain sings, “I’m so ugly” and takes the voice of a man on the brink of killing himself – dysfunctional, random, and all of that. Cobain made it clear that most of the time he was not singing about himself in his songs, but was pulling from what he saw in other people.

There other tracks on this album all have the same general feeling as the first few tracks. If you have the album, pass it around to others. If you do not own it, go to a local music vendor and purchase it.

by Haley Verre
Staff Writer

The Winter Concert on December 9th displayed the musical talents of the Westford Academy students in chorus, band, and orchestra. The Performing Arts Center  was flooded with parents and fellow classmates eager to see the show.

The musicians came into the Performing Arts Center dressed in all-black, staid clothing and in an orderly fashion. Although a more festive, light mood was anticipated, this turned out to be serious.

The first song, “My Heart is Still Offered to You,” was performed by the Westford Academy Concert Choir and showed the students’ voices to wonderful effect.

The second song had an eerie feel with a hint of melancholy. This particular song made the choir sound very in-sync, just as a singing group should. This received a decent amount of applause from the audience.

The best number was a wonderful rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You.” This was an a capella version of the song; students mimicked the sounds of instruments creatively. The bountiful applause and cheers that followed proved this was an audience favorite.

“Es Ist Ein Ros Enstsprungen,” a German song, had  lighter feel and was a variation on the previous, more serious songs.

“Christmas Time is Here,” which was sung beautifully, was accompanied by instruments like the piano and bass played by a couple of students.

“Carol of the Bells,” yet another Christmas classic, was sung in perfect unison. Although short, this presented a sweet, delicate feel. Once again, plaudits erupted from the audience.

“Friendship,” which lacked the emotion the other songs were able to convey, gave a dull, sleepy atmosphere.

The orchestra was impressive when it first performed; perhaps even shocking. The strings were in perfect harmony and the music was lively. The upbeat tempo of the first song, “St. Paul’s Suite,” was the best of all the instrumentals.

Once the band played, the songs were more interesting to listen to due to the variety of instruments.

The audience was unsure of the transitions between each song and not quite confident of when to clap. For this reason, it was difficult to tell which song was which.

The very last performance of the night, “America the Beautiful,” was performed by both the choir and symphonic band and was brilliantly done.

Overall, the concert impressed as professionally done and well-rehearsed. On the 9th, Westford Academy was noticeably a place of abundant talent.

Recently produced by WATA, “Code Monkey” is an hilarious comedy. It had the crowd roaring with laughter. Starring Nick Nudler and Leah Detolla, the play is about an intern who works at Notanevil Drug Company and falls head over heals for a lab assistant, Laura (Detolla). When Laura gets kidnapped by the evil boss of the company, Tom, the intern, goes to rescue her.

The cast of the production included thirty-eight students, most of whom were in the ensemble.

The plot is built around a set of songs, all written by Jonathan Coulton, and was written and directed by Dr. Luke Jorgensen after he discovered Coulton’s music.  Jorgensen said he was fascinated by the “theatricality of the songs and set about to write a show that would feature this music.”

Everything from the ushers’ outfits to the program were done well. One complaint from several of the audience members was that the sound was very low. Also, even the actors admit to a lack of plot in the play. However, the great singing by Nudler, Detolla, Jillian Frankel, and Chris Kandra, and the rest of the cast balanced out the imperfections.

Code Monkey was a very strange play, with outrageous makeup and plot. Nothing about it was low-key.

Some freshmen find it highly unfair that seniors rank supreme at WA, while some freshmen find it to be all right. Many feelings poured out of some members of the freshman class after the spirit rally last Friday. Everyone expects seniors to win everything. From Penny-Wars, the spirit week costumes, and especially spirit rally activities, seniors annually rank supreme.

Freshmen are obviously unfavored by all upperclassmen, but does it really matter? In reality, it doesn’t. Freshmen will eventually have their turn to dominate all underclassmen. However, some freshmen are angry at the fact that freshmen are practically forbidden to win anything at all.

But when does the fun turn into bullying? The seniors have been notorious for taking advantage of their reign, but at events like the spirit rallies, it is totally expected. What the seniors do and how they treat underclassmen could not be referred to as bullying, but maybe as disrespect. The seniors are not to blame for what they do, all senior classes in history have picked on the frosh. Everyone knows that freshman traditionally get the short end of the stick but what is so wrong with that? Next year the freshmen will have their chance to discriminate against the future ‘frosh’ and in three years, we will be the seniors, the kings of the castle.

This type of freshmen discrimination shouldn’t have students questioning the spirit rally rules and regulations. If rules change now, when this year’s freshmen become seniors, the last thing they would wish for is for the freshmen to win anything at all. The freshmen are supposed to get poked fun at and teased. It may not be fun for us now, but it will be fun for us for the next three years to lean on the new freshmen classes. After all, “the freshmen experience” wouldn’t be complete without the promise of a little fun.