NORMAL – Illinois State University has hired a new athletic director as its former AD stepped down today. Gary Friedman announced today he will resign effective June 30, just two years after taking the job.

ISU has appointed Larry Lyons as the next associate athletic director. Lyons agreed to a three-year term starting July 1.

Lyons has been at ISU for 26 years. He currently oversees business, faculty and external operations, human resources and the Weibring Golf Club.

NORMAL- The Kaufman football building on the campus of Illinois State was packed to see ISU Athletic Director Gary Friedman introduce the seventh women’s  head basketball coach in school history.  Illinois State hired Barb Smith to replace former head coach Stephanie Glance on Sunday.

Smith has been involved in division-one women’s basketball for 26 years. She has been a head coach once before at San Diego State from 1997-2002. Smith has been an assistant coach at five different schools, her last stop being at Saint Louis University last season.

Smith is considered as a prominent recruiter. She has over ten top-20 nationally-ranked classes.

“I’m going to recruit hard work and character,” Smith said.

Sometimes when a coaching change takes place massive change occurs systematically. But it Smith will try to run a similar style of up-tempo offense that ISU ran last season. As far as tempo goes on offense and defense, Smith wants to  keep the pressure on the opposing team at all times.

Smith’s three keys for success are team, effort and attitude.

Smith takes over for Glance, who resigned earlier this month. Glance left for a head coaching position at Columbia. In Glance’s three years at ISU, she coached three 20-win teams and had three WNIT appearances.

NORMAL – The Illinois State softball team (17-15) begins its stretch of six games in six days today in Chicago. The Redbirds will wrap up their regular season non-conference schedule against the DePaul Blue Demons (23-13).

The Redbirds are running into a hot Blue Demon squad. In its last four games DePaul has scored 60 runs, all resulting in run-rule victories.

ISU is coming off its first Missouri Valley Conference series win (2-1)  this weekend against Missouri State. The Redbirds swept the weekly conference awards. Senior catcher Elizabeth Kay received player of the week for the fourth time this year, and junior Taylor Baxter received pitcher of the week honors for the first time in her career.

After ISU’s trip to Chicago Tuesday, they will come back home for a make-up double-header against the Bradley Braves on Thursday.  Then Saturday the team will head to Des Moines, Iowa for a three game series against Drake.

The Redbirds and the Blue Demons have a first pitch set for 4:00 p.m. C.T. at Cacciatore Stadium in Chicago today.

In an early press conference Friday morning, Illinois State University announced Dr. Timothy Flanagan as their new president.

Flanagan comes from Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where he served as president since 2006. He also served as a Provost at State University of New York College of Brockport between 1998 and 2006. The Board of Trustees selected him over 40 other candidates. Student Trustee Aaron Von Qualen attributes part of this decision to the fact that Flanagan is a “student’s president.”

Among his goals, Flanagan wishes to sustain the University’s prestige in the state while also helping it grow the way President Al Bowman has over his tenure in the position. He also wants to be active with students and bring faculty members closer with them.

Flanagan will begin his service as ISU’s president on August 15. President Al Bowman will officially step down from the position on May 15.

Five are dead from gunshot wounds in a Southwestern Illinois town. Early this morning, the bodies of a grandmother, young couple, and two small children were found in their home in Manchester, IL. A sixth victim was found alive and taken to the hospital.

The victims are reported to be Joanne Sinclair, 65, Brittany Luark, 22, Roy Ralston, Nolan Ralston, 5, and Bradley Ralston, 1. The sixth person, reported to be Cassidy Ralston, 7, was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.

They lived in a first floor apartment of a housing development, according to police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

The suspect was apprehended after a ten-minute chase, and shots were fired at 8:00 AM this morning. He was taken to the hospital after sustaining injuries and was pronounced dead. His name has not been released.

Manchester is a town of 300 people 50 miles southwest of Springfield. This is the first murder in over 40 years.

WZND will update this story.

Kellie Cicchino

Pioneer

Release Date: April 2, 2013

The Band Perry is back with their second studio album Pioneer. After their 2010 breakthrough single “If I Die Young” being such a huge success, the band of siblings were definitely on everyone’s radar.

Pioneer is not your typical country album. The trio knows how to expand upon their country roots by incorporating occasional folk, pop and a rock influence. This new project is unlike anything fans have heard.

The first single off the album, “Better Dig Two,” is genius. At first listen it may seem morbid and completely death-related, but it sets the tone for the rest of the album. This jam shows off the raw side of country with a mix of gothic musical themes. The music video just adds to the creepy, obsessive message to the song. But they still hold true to the country genre with the sweet sounds of the banjo.

“Done.” is a guarantee foot stomping, head banging hit. I recommend listening to it at an extremely loud volume; anything else just would not do it justice. This song was sure to blow up after the band’s performance of it at the American Country Music Awards this month. Lead singer Kimberly Perry always throws herself into any performance, showing that the band can put on a great show.

It is also pretty impressive that the band wrote 9 of the 12 songs. They had a little help from Brad Paisley who co-wrote “Forever Mine Nevermind.” “Night Gone Wasted” is filled with country flare mixed in with some southern rock.

“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” has a slower melody, but it still fits in perfect with the rest of the album. It sounds similar to a song Sugarland would write, which is a compliment. You can even hear the brother’s voices, which is not as common.

In “Mother Like Mine” she sings, “Tonight would be easier/and our dreams would all be deeper/if the world had a mother like mine.” The song contains cute and corny lyrics, but knowing the sibling trio is most likely singing about their mother makes the ballad that much more sentimental.

The album debuted at the top of the Billboard for country album, which shows that they must be doing something right. The great thing about The Band Perry is how relatable they are, literally being a band of siblings. Anyone can identify them because of the edgy and unique sound that they produce.

Whether you’re done with an ex boyfriend/girlfriend, not wanting to separate from the one you love, or trying to prove yourself to someone, there is a song for every mood. The boldness of the songs remain throughout the entire album, making each one a potential hit.

The Band Perry is one of the hottest country groups in the industry right now, and they are only going to get bigger. This is one of the first country albums where I did not skip over any song. Each one was on point. You can tell the band took their time on Pioneer, and it was well worth the wait without any disappointments.

Overall: 9/10

Recommended Tracks: “Done.”, “Chainsaw”, “I’m a Keeper”

I despise Fall Out Boy. Really, I do. There’s just something about Patrick Stump’s voice that strikes me as the perfect blend of Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Panic! At the Dicso’s Brendon Urie- the perfect blend of sappy, whiny, modern boy band garbage designed to pull on the heartstrings of naïve teenage girls.

Now that I have that out of the way, I can review this album: It’s actually pretty good. Whoa. Maybe I didn’t harp on Fall Out Boy enough to create a sufficient contrast, but that is A LOT coming from me. Save Rock And Roll contains some gems that I really enjoy listening to. I can’t believe it!

I think they’ve developed their style over the past years. They’re still true to their pop punk roots; but in this new album, they’ve turned down the “punk” knob and boosted the “rock” levels to homogeneously synthesize with their signature pop sound. And voila, we have something truly worth consideration.

So let’s dive right in and pick it apart.

The good:

“The Phoenix”, the album’s leading track, is a breath of fresh air to the band’s style. It’s VERY catchy, and can have previous band-haters (such as myself) repenting their vows.

“My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)” has been on the charts for some time now, and you live in a cave if you haven’t heard it yet. I’ll dismiss this one simply: It’s good. ‘Nuff said.

“Death Valley” has a driving beat that resonates well. I would compare this one to the band The Darkness. It’s not nearly as “hard rock”-y as The Darkness, but the vocals strike me as similar.

The bad:  “Young Volcanoes” is their attempt at participating in that modern pop trend of bouncy, carefree, the clouds-are-smiling-and-the-sun-is-out-and-I’m-happy kind of music. I don’t know what that’s called exactly. But many bands are doing it in this day and age, and Fall Out Boy doesn’t do it as well. They sound like they’re imitating.

“Rat A Tat”- No. Meaningless garbage.

“Save Rock And Roll” is the album’s title track. It’s too bad they can’t sing in tune (or are they doing that intentionally? It’s hard to tell).

In conclusion: it’s a shame that it’s taken this long for Fall Out Boy to finally find their best stylistic niche. This album is really, really good.  But you won’t catch me saying that to my friends. In that case, “It’s not half bad.”

Overall: 7/10

Recommended Tracks: “The Phoenix”, “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”, “Death Valley”

- Aaron Eades

         It’s no secret that Paramore has had their fair share of troubles. Paramore hasn’t released an album since 2009, however with those four years they took an interesting creative route that is reflected throughout the album.

Paramore’s fourth album self-titled Paramore was released April 5, and consists of 19 songs making the album 70 minutes long; this included the bonus tracks titled “Escape Route” and “Native Tongue”. The new album has received many positive reviews. The album also just recently scored the number one spot on Billboard.

            Despite the positive reviews they have received the album misses its mark on the Paramore fans are accustomed to. While the album does open with a nice reminder of the Paramore fans love with “Fast In My Car,” it fails to remain consistent. When the album first opens it seems as if there may be a little hope for the old Paramore. “Fast In My Car” is a jam that you can rock out in your car with, on a nice summer day. Then it continues with a reflective song called “Now” their first single released, addresses Paramore’s absence from the music scene with lyrics like “Feels like I’m waking from the dead. And everyone’s been waiting on me.” It continues on as Hayley Williams sings “I’m bringing my sinking ship back to the shore. We’re starting over, or head back in. There’s a time and a place to die but this ain’t it.” It’s a very reflective single that fans would definitely enjoy.

The album does take a turn slightly with “Daydreaming.” The intro of the song had a very Birdy-esk vibe to it, but of course with Paramore, they make it into their own sound. This song leads the listener into the song “Interlude: Moving On.” It is the first of three interludes, which all felt out of character and makes you wonder what exactly you are listening to. By the third interlude you’re already rolling your eyes because you recognize the ukuleles within the song signaling an interlude, thus making it very predictable. “Future” was another song that started out promising, it hardly has any lyrics, but felt very pensive and calm, with the harmonies all lining up perfectly, with Williams singing softly. It then becomes a little more aggressive with just an instrumental solo turning it more dark then it originally started out. It was a breath of fresh air, but then it seems to wind down at around the 5:10 mark and gets into a lull that makes the listener believe the song is over and for almost 20 seconds, its dead air. It picks up again with the same instrumental solo that it ended with for another 2 minutes. This just seemed tedious because it was not necessary for the song to just pick up where it left off only to do the same thing over again, it should have just ended at the 5:10 mark.

It wasn’t a bad album; it had a lot of the Paramore elements that fans love. It was emotional, complicated, and creative. It’s a good comeback album after being absent for 4 years. It did have its ups and downs though which is why I’m not giving this album a perfect score.

Overall: 7/10

Recommended Tracks: “Now,” “Fast In My Car,” “Ain’t  It Fun, ” “Anklebiters,” “Escape Route”

- Michelle Mason