Latest Entries
Since 2000, Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong have made music to fit Woody Allen's worst nightmare: a universe expanding, stretched to the point of breaking.
[Brady Baker]
Endless Boogie is a little too composed to be AC/DC, a little too garagey and East Coast to be like ZZ Top, too tasteful to be like Foghat and too straightforward and clean to be like Monster Magnet.
[Chris Middleman]
The Extra Man is fortunate to boast a distinguished cast, since its story never coalesces into something more concrete than a sketch of eccentricities.
[Nathan Kamal]
A wood-fired oven is best for achieving high temperatures, but any regular oven cranked up to 500 degrees gets the job done.
[Amanda Jones]
San Diego, CA, 07/22/10-07/25/10
[Rafael Gaitan]
Unlike other Bruce Willis flicks of the '90s, there's a pleasingly absent amount of cutesiness this time around.
[Marcus David]
If Farewell doesn't as successfully marry high and low culture elements as Spielberg's Munich, it does do a commendable job of keeping the two sides together, filling hollow spy tropes with feeling and life.
[Jesse Cataldo]
"I still like about 95% of my record collection. Except for That Petrol Emotion, that was a mistake."
[Stacey Pavlick]
Yes, Rick Ross has a song named "MC Hammer" and it represents everything that works and doesn't work about Teflon Don.
[Chaz Kangas]
Spur's sound is definitively '60s; it's difficult to even think of a band this steeped in psychedelic, country, riff-driven rock and pop as existing in any other period.
[Nathan Kamal]
That director Todd Solondz is able to make this oppression so palatable in his films is a real skill; neither Happiness nor Life During Wartime feel grating or overbearing.
[Morgan Davis]
Sounding more confident and mature than any 24 year-old singer on their first solo outing ever should, Walker takes to his material like a man who knows that what he's recording is a sheer marvel.
[Nathan Kamal]
September 2009 Archives
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009
Various Venues, Portland, OR, 09/16/09 and 09/17/09
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009
The re-release of Toy Story comes at an interesting time for the movies. Much like the toys in Andy's room, it seems that the studios are afraid that they too will become obsolete.
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009
Though the film does move towards an implausible climax, there are just too many laughs and gross-out effects to really care. Come on, are you going to see a film called Zombieland and take it seriously?
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009
Malone could have easily written a collection of songs like "Stork & Owl" and "Province" and called it a day. But, the songs on Rain Machine squirm with fresh life, filtering the poetry of a pissed-off artist through the sieve of delicate guitar on tracks that alternate from joyous to bleak.
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009
Zounds tries its damnedest to be hooky and interesting, resulting in a record that's a bit frontloaded, with it's plateau of quality falling mid-album.
[Chris Middleman]
Monday, Sep 28, 2009
It seems like everyone has their own favorite way of preparing the hearty and versatile lentil, but we think this recipe works really well with the texture of the bean.
[Benjamin Bernstein]
Monday, Sep 28, 2009
Kool Haus,Toronto, ON, 07/22/09
[Brady Baker]
Monday, Sep 28, 2009
It's hard to shake the arrogance of Almereyda's concept altogether, that somehow the travels of a man affluent enough to go wherever he wants for several years just aimlessly filming should be interesting.
[Morgan Davis]
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
Perhaps Backspacer's most glaring weakness is that listeners will inevitably feel like they've heard these songs before- if not from Pearl Jam, then from countless other classic rock artists.
[Marcus David]
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
Promenade is clearly the work of a growing band, brilliant in fits and prone to the exaggeration of the own fine qualities of others.
[Nathan Kamal]
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
A family drama about a makeshift family, Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum operates at the bare fringes of human experience, places where responsibility fades away and obsolescence takes hold.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
Born Again Revisited is a good album, but it also feels like Times New Viking are treading water somewhat and the band may need to head in a different direction if they want to stay vital and creative.
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
Heartbeat Radio is the sixth album from Norwegian-born Sondre Lerche, a 27 year-old emigrant now residing in Brooklyn. Since the turn of the millennium, he's made a name for himself making shiny pop and occasionally scruffy garage rock in the vein of A-ha and Elvis Costello. On this outing he pretty much sticks to that formula, erring more on the innocuous side of things.
[Bryan Kerwin]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
The newest PLAYLIST focuses on Belle & Sebastian. What if you had to choose the best of this Scottish band? Unfortunately, there is just one small parameter to overcome....
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
Those pleading WHY?'s case have been more and more blown away with each effort, with last year's Alopecia standing as the high water mark. Eskimo Snow, which in Amnesiac fashion was culled from the same sessions as the essential Alopecia, is the first time that it seems like the group has stopped evolving; if we're talking about winning new fans over, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
[Morgan Davis]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
Amy Millan (of both Stars and Canadian supergroup/music collective Broken Social Scene) has produced her sophomore solo effort, Masters of the Burial and not surprisingly, it doesn't share much of a sound with her group releases. That's not terribly unusual- solo records from an artist usually associated with a group (or two) often deliberately try to depart from expectations. What is more surprising is that Millan's choice of sound and mood should turn out quite so forgettable.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
For all its veneer of avant-garde credibility, El Topo is a remarkably conservative, even reactionary, film that glorifies masculine violence as much as any dumb action movie, doesn't trust beautiful women and exalts its god-like hero. The considerable violence may be graphic, but it's neither shocking nor radical, with just as much in common with Dirty Harry as Artaud.
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
As South Africa moves ahead in its cultural transformation, Disgrace questions the place of the white man in this new nation, and whether there is even a place anymore for this sudden minority.
[David Harris]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
As an exercise in vulgarity, The Death of Bunny Munro is a masterpiece, so full of ridiculously explicit sexual detail that it continually drifts over-the-top. Of course, this is coming from a man who generally sings about babies born without brains and "No Pussy Blues," so that's not a shock.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
Arriaga's script moves backwards and forwards in time, crossing generations and frontiers at will; events unwind and blend together in a way that stretches credulity long past its breaking point and ends up heavy on symbolism and melodrama but empty on ideas.
[Teri Carson]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's second EP, Higher Than The Stars, is essentially more of the same from the New York indie sensations; fuzzy guitars, '80s pop sensibilities and boy-girl vocals courtesy of Kip Berman and Peggy Wang. But when a young band's output has been so consistently dazzling, I can hardly find anything wrong with that. Higher's four songs (and one CD-only remix of the title track) could have fit anywhere on their self-titled debut; that's a mark of their quality and not a holding pattern.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009
Monotonix has a raw energy to be sure and there is some novelty to a foreign band putting their stamp on American rock 'n' roll. The Hives had a similar appeal, but they had better songs and funnier lyrics. Ami Shalev's vocals are almost entirely garbled and the songs have little personality or distinction, and the album is more like a long, woozy heavy dude rock orgy. It's too bad they weren't more imaginative in their packaging, perhaps including a DVD or a lock of chest hair.
[Lukas Sherman]
Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
Unmap is not as intimate and song-centered as Emma, instead favoring more of an experimental, sonically adventurous, even avant-garde bent. Where Emma was about the songs and emotions, Unmap is more about the mood, the layers and the textures. While it still feels rural, you'd be forgiven for thinking Brian Eno or John Cage is out in the Wisconsin woods with them.
[Lukas Sherman]
Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
Having all met while working at a Melbourne vinyl pressing plant, the easily-Googled Eddy Current Suppression Ring started out as a goof during a company party; guitarist Mikey Young, bassist Brad Barry and drummer Danny Young kicked out some ham-fisted garage jams while Brendan Huntley ad-libbed very Australian-sounding inanities into the microphone. Voila, a band was born, then christened after an obscure machine part used in vinyl-pressing technology.
[Chris Middleman]
Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
To gauge this body of work traditionally would not be fair, as this is not a traditional release. For fans of Broderick, this is a worthwhile release, as the chance to hear new material from his early catalogue gives a unique perspective into the creative process. If this album is your first taste of his work, in no way would it make for an accurate summation.
[Josh Vietti]
Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
"I really have no desire to see most people in the world without clothes on. I think most people, especially men, just appear a lot better in the world with clothes on. For me personally, women are one of the most beautiful things we have to behold. I'm not saying it from the point of sex. I just mean, I'm a grown man and I think women are beautiful. I try to stand in front of naked women as often as I can."
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009
What if the South had won the Civil War?
[Eric Dennis]
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009
Michael Moore's latest goes after the rich elite, the 1% that has more money than most of our other citizens combined. And it tries to get that other 99% of our population pissed off enough so they, to quote another movie, take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down.
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009
Just like the name itself, the fare at Pies and Pints is simple and unadorned. The menu essentially consists of the aforementioned pies and pints, with a few staple comfort foods thrown in for good measure.
[Nicola Fairhead]
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009
Repressed emotion can be the strongest. And for this reason, the lack of physical intimacy only heightens the longing, as the couple try to satisfy their longing through other means. The strong use of subtext easily overcomes the simple, episodic plot. This is a film of stolen glances, loaded gestures, fleeting touches, and words, lots of incredible words.
[James Shelledy]
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009
Two Dancers is a clear step forward for Wild Beasts, ably taking them from talented rookies to driven, inspired standouts in one leap. The few tracks that hold Two Dancers back are even inspiring in their own right, indicating that Wild Beasts are a band unhappy with sticking to any one template for too long, instead pursuing ideas as far as they can go and then moving on.
[Morgan Davis]
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009
Unlike a lot of folk compositions, Cotton's stories do not feel like clever puzzles on the thin edge between authenticity and mirth, between message and entertainment; despite gaps in literal storytelling, each song is emotionally compelling and feels whole and full of grace. They linger not as commercial songs do, but in the ways of dreams. They are emotionally resonant but sidestep expectations of what songs should be.
[Eva Gordon]
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009
With a new batch of young bands (Times New Viking, Eat Skull) playing scrappy, sometimes dissonant pop songs, the time is fortuitous for a new Clean album. Mister Pop, their first studio album in eight years, is appropriately named, as they have an uncanny knack for sweet, but not cheesy melodies.
[Lukas Sherman]
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., 07/30/09
[Neal Fersko]
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
No Impact Man could easily veer into the territory of the overbearing, but the naturalistic filmmaking and engaging personalities of the people involved keep it light and nimble while remaining contemplative and informative.
[Teri Carson]
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
Amid all the bizarre weirdos, tragic figures and other conflicted characters that populate Chesnutt's songs, death has been among the most frequent themes in his music.
[Eric Dennis]
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
55 Cadillac is a drive through the city at night, with the lights reflecting in the windshield. It is elegant, stimulating, and full of twists and turns. Ultimately the ambition of the project is validated through W.K.'s talents for more conventional musicianship. 55 Cadillac manages to be a sign of a more accessible Andrew W.K., while still maintaining his passion through different channels. His skills and his ambition are like his car- vintage, refined, and guaranteed to turn heads.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
Ocasional, overt lifts from other pop songs are the only true problems on Love Will Find You. Brown's predilection towards classic pop lends itself well to his deep, even croon, and even the instrumentation is note-perfect for the '50s style he's slowly perfecting. Melodrama is the key word of the record- there are no small emotions here, only the sounds of a man throwing his heart into his microphone.
[Nathan Kamal]
Sunday, Sep 20, 2009
The cinema of Canada has been a cinema of loneliness, populated by characters who are often stunted or socially awkward, haunted by events or mistakes or misdeeds, lost even when they find others like themselves.
[Morgan Davis]
Sunday, Sep 20, 2009
We all know that tastes change. Last Spin is a series in which our writers give a final listen to and offer up reflections and recollections about albums that once meant something to them before bidding them farewell.
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
Give Me Your Hand doesn't ever amount to much more than a waste of time.
[Andrei Alupului]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
Time to Die is a tough listen after a few minutes - all the prog builds, drum-circle jams and rhythmic shifts make for the worst kind of sonic whiplash.
[Michael Merline]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
While it's fun to speculate on a mysterious figure who releases records to worldwide acclaim, that's simply not the case here. Whatever aura Shapiro cultivates for herself gets shot down pretty quickly by how dull her music is.
[Neal Fersko]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
The Sub Pop Years will try the patience of even the most enthusiastic and sympathetic Damon & Naomi fan. At 15 tracks and over 70 minutes, it paradoxically showcases everything great about the duo's blend of understated arrangements and hazy atmospherics, while also exposing the group's tendency to hit on a formula and repeat it well past the point of decency.
[Eric Dennis]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
Some of the plot strands are less engaging than others, while potentially interesting characters are frustratingly under-developed. The film is too long, drags in places and Klapisch opts to downplay his most dramatic scenes, lessening their emotional impact.
[Teri Carson]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
Sam Jacobs of The Flying Change eulogizes the recently departed author of The Basketball Diaries.
[Sam Jacobs]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
Sure, we all know the songs, but when is the last time we sat down and listened to an album all the way through? Luckily, these new editions feature crackling sound (not to mention gorgeous packaging) that makes their purchase essential to hardcore fans.
[David Harris]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
No More Stories... is filled with Bo Madsen's layered guitar, Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen's syncopated, polyrhythmic drumming and Jonas Bjerre's sugary vocals. Like their previous albums, it places the emphasis on the work as a whole over individual tracks. The traditional lines between songs aren't there. Each flows into another with a seamless motion.
[Nicholas Ryan]
Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
With Rebelution, Pitbull continues to evolve lyrically, and he has crafted another solid Miami-bass/club electronica record that is sure to be heard in clubs as well as from cars, and just as loud in both.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Thursday, Sep 17, 2009
If Mick Jagger nodding solemnly to Bill Clinton at a sound check weirds you out, seeing Keith Richards kiss Hillary Clinton's mother on the cheek is going to blow your mind.
[Nathan Kamal]
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2009
The film's one saving grace is Damon who plays a tightly coiled character ready to unload. Much like his Tom Ripley, Damon's Whitacre is tinderbox about to incinerate. But unlike Anthony Minghella who allowed us to see Ripley's inner workings, Soderbergh keeps us outside of Whitacre's pathology until the very end, clueing us in with ridiculous inner thoughts.
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2009
Jennifer's Body suffers from an identity crisis. It's not horror because it's not scary. And it doesn't have enough laughs to be a comedy. Add a failed attempt at the teen angst genre to the mix, and you get one train wreck of a movie.
[James Shelledy]
Monday, Sep 14, 2009
Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR, 08/04/09
[David Harris]
Monday, Sep 14, 2009
The Vivian Girls have an uncanny ability to tap into post-relationship alarm by stripping away the filler of their favorite music in the best tradition of lo-fi surf and garage music. They still love their Red Bird vinyls and no wave cassettes. However, when the time is right, they'll chuck both out the window in favor of an cavernous sound with overlapping guitar lines.
[Neal Fersko]
Monday, Sep 14, 2009
Thurston Moore described the Entrance Band as "the most alluring and, yes, entrancing vibe [he's] yet to experience in the new age." That should get some purist muso hipsters tizzied up enough to check out them out.
[Chris Middleman]
Monday, Sep 14, 2009
Crude is a sobering story of greedy destruction and the persistence of humans and humanitarian groups to keep fighting the tentacles of multinational corporations.
[David Harris]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
Elia's utterly downtrodden and malicious shtick may grow tiresome after a while - eventually the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir will have to explore new topical waters to avoid going stale - but for now it works, spawning one of the most creative, contemptuous and darkly entertaining records in recent years.
[Marcus David]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
Super Group really only succeeds as proof that artists need to know when to say when.
[Morgan Davis]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
One of the oldest American cocktails is the Old-Fashioned. Perhaps because it seems so simple-it's essential whiskey cut with sugar and water-people seem to want to muck with it.
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
"It's been kind of annoying actually because I never said that and I'm embarrassed that people think that I might have said that. It's definitely not a black metal album and the whole idea of doing kind of a kitschy genre album is so embarrassing and shallow."
[Brady Baker]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
The flair for collaboration is what makes Cuban Linx II such a success as Raekwon seems to grasp, unlike so many of his Wu peers, that he works better when surrounded by an immensely talented crew, whether that's Wu or a mix of others.
[Morgan Davis]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers isn't so much a great leap forward in style or experimentation for Rose, but is instead another quality installment of solo output.
[Brian Loeper]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
American Casino is a solid magazine feature, written on video, well structured and thought out, about a subject that's of particular importance to us today. It's just funny that a documentary about this degree of conspicuous consumption could itself turn out to be so ambivalently disposable.
[Andrei Alupului]
Sunday, Sep 13, 2009
Lovers are like bubbles, one character in Alex Dos Santos' Unmade Beds muses. We share space, we combine, we merge into one. However, her lover is diametrically opposed to this theory. He views lovers like planets orbiting one another, nothing more than "one plus one."
[David Harris]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Dusan Makavejev's 1971 film WR: Mysteries of the Organism is a free-form, free-ranging, unclassifiable avant-garde classic from Yugoslavia of all places. Actually, if you want to simplify it, it's all about sex and politics: the politics of sex, the sex of politics, etc.
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
There's not enough of this perspective, and as a whole Non-Stop suffers from a severe lack of context. We hear from the band's fans and its members, see clips of them drinking beer, on the road, in the studio, but there are few views from outside this bubble.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
The September Issue captures the creation of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine, which at the time, was the largest in its history.
[James Shelledy]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Chelsea Girl has disappeared into anonymity, which is unfortunate as quite a few triumphs appear on this unheralded jewel. Rightfully seen as a companion piece to that Velvet's masterpiece - both were produced largely by Wilson in 1967 and include contributions from Reed, Cale and Sterling Morrison - Chelsea Girl is a unique and bizarre piece of chamber folk.
[Marcus David]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
The reissuing of these two Feelies classics is a welcome occasion--it reminds listeners of an innovative sound in rock history, and may even spur some of today's ubiquitous indie bands to leave be the moment's fads and take their songwriting in new directions. As for the recently reunited Feelies themselves: how about some new stuff, guys?
[Eva Gordon and Danny Djeljosevic]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Black Heart Moon will have to work extremely hard to avoid comparisons to Cowboy Junkies. Their basic sound shares so many similarities that it's difficult to not to immediately associate the two; ethereal, yet rootsy female vocals, droning lap steel and acoustic guitars all combine into dreamy, simple music.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
The Knitting Factory, Spokane, WA, 07/24/09
[Josh Vietti]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Sunny Day Real Estate were a band with an almost telepathic connection to each other; Dan Hoerner and Jeremy Enigk's guitar lines seem to anticipate each other as Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith push and pull the rhythm between the notes-- this was a group that could start and stop on a dime. Those that would pillage the emo template would miss this, thinking it was just a matter of throwing a pummeling rhythm section up against a nasally voice and calling it good.
[Morgan Davis]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Threats/Worship is made up of a series of quick and forceful tracks, drawing inspiration from punk's volatile delivery and garage rock's substance-before-style mantra. So get ready; this might be the nosiest record you hear all year.
[Michael Merline]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
"I'm interested in the past but I don't like the past very much. I think that's why I'm interested in it. I think that when you write about the past, you can't really be honest and you can't know what it was like to be there."
[David Harris]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
Big Fan is almost certainly guaranteed to be a breakthrough for Patton Oswalt. By turns hideously unlikable and easily sympathetic, his turn as Paul is nothing short of revelatory. He plays the character as spiteful and indecisive, so secure in his tiny world that it's terribly tempting to ignore his profound alienation.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
The script for White on Rice is not good. However, the cast is likable and the jokes, while not always funny, are well-natured enough.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Thursday, Sep 10, 2009
Haih finds Os Mutantes struggling, but determined, to find their place in a world where the means of oppression and coercion are increasingly subtle, resulting in the arousal of the need for the band to help usher in a secret language of revolution for the second time in their career.
[Sean Marchetto]
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2009
Whiteout is a sad example of how not to adapt a graphic novel, standing alongside the miserable Wanted as the least competent understanding of an excellent, adventurous source.
[Morgan Davis]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Kiss and Tell has an intelligent and darkly confrontational tone which draws blood early and often. Songs come in the form of questions and accusations which are pushed forward with the type of harsh steadiness you get when you swing a baseball bat at a brick wall; narrow, heavy, memorable, and persistent.
[Neal Fersko]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Like the Butthole Surfers and Jesus Lizard before them, Pissed Jeans make music that leaves you feeling grimy afterwards, as though your ears are covered in filth. The rhythm section is thick and sluggish, the guitars sharp as a knife to the gut, the vocals not so much interested in melody as they are in sounding entirely fucked up.
[Morgan Davis]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Everything Touches Everything is just palatable enough to leave listeners hanging on, waiting in vain for the song that tilts the balance of likability in the band's favor, but such a track never emerges. Instead, These United States redefines mediocrity with the passing of each indistinguishable tune.
[Marcus David]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
If you don't like fat, by the way, you have no business eating good 'cue.
[Nathan Kamal]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Rather than follow a family over the course of an entire extended reunion, documenting their every contentious encounter, Hirokazu Kore-eda narrows his focus down to the scope of a single day with the Yokoyama clan.
[Andrei Alupului]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Backspace, Portland, OR 07/23/09
[Nathan Kamal]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Apples in Stereo have a rare knack for crafting songs that thrive both within the album format and without it, allowing their material to remain strangely timeless-- as capable of surviving in the vinyl age as the iPod one.
[Morgan Davis]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
A document of a promising cult hero at his earliest and rawest should reveal something new about him or at least hint at it. But unfortunately, it's little more a pleasant run-through of Greenwich Village in 1967.
[Nathan Kamal]
Monday, Sep 7, 2009
Brown Recluse's bouncy and dreamy arrangements recall Os Mutantes and especially Belle & Sebastian; the latter band's influence finds its way both into Timothy Meskers' vocals and the songs' frequent use of horns.
[Eric Dennis]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
The 11 minute short 9 is based upon is a cool and somewhat creepy little film noticeably influenced by Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay. In its shorter form, the minimal plot served to heighten its mystery and foreboding. However, in feature length form, the material is stretched thin, even at relatively brief running length of just 79 minutes.
[James Shelledy]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha may succeed at remaining true to its subject, but that doesn't save it from being an idealistic flop of a film.
[Morgan Davis]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
Brant Bjork was the founding drummer for Kyuss, whose guitar riffs, largely tuned down to C, were an accurate summation of wide desert expanses: intimidating and majestic. Though raised on the styles of Bill Ward with an ear also for Suicidal Tendencies, Bjork's drumming was much more expressive than any of the influences obvious for a metal band.
[Chris Middleman]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
With Curse Your Branches, David Bazan has managed to forge himself a new, eponymous identity, without turning from any of his old successes. Although he may not be Pedro the Lion or Headphones, he still has the delicate sensibility for synths and the paradox of faith and wit.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
In this post-Raconteurs release, Benson seized the opportunity to invest in production quality, using the talents of producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters and Gomez) to take off the DIY edge his previous albums possessed.
[Nicholas Ryan]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
There's a lot of talent and potential on Girls Come Too, but also evidence that a lot of maturing that needs to happen.
[Sean Marchetto]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
That's right: another fucking Tom Waits biography.
[Eric Dennis]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
The movie is entertaining, but its jokes are obvious and its characters barely there. Laughing at the scenes feels like an exercise in reflex, it requires no thought or deliberation.
[Morgan Davis]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
Like other Yo La Tengo records, Popular Songs is topically abstract, offering only patchy allusions to worry, escape, imagination and reverie.
[Marcus David]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
For those who crave cool artifice, Memoirs at the End of the World is a sexy, stylish album that not only provides a valuable lesson in putting together a cohesive record, but also works as a soundtrack for your Ian Fleming novels.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Saturday, Sep 5, 2009
A cohesive sound may be an album or two away, but with the talent established on this tight, melody-filled collection it shouldn't matter to most listeners.
[Jory Spadea]
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009
Within this article sit our picks for the best videos of the decade. Has music video become obsolete with the devolution of MTV into a fraternity fuckfest? We here at Spectrum Culture think not. YouTube has become a fecund ground for people who still love their music videos. Please enjoy these picks
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009
In Liverpool, the longing to remember and to be remembered is so intense grief wins over desire. Movement becomes the only available fulfillment and memory itself becomes the effort at remembering.
[Teri Carson]
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009
"It's always more glamorous when the guy dies, right? When the guy totally destroys himself is always more glamorous and romantic than the guy who survives and moves on. You know what I'm saying."
[David Harris]
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009
Bondy's voice is a pleasing one, built on straightforward earnestness. His interesting lyrics don't quite cohere into stories, but more often are only ghostly suggestions of stories; so the listener reaches for better grasp of the singer's emotions in the overtones and subtle shifts of attitude, rather than toward literal narrative.
[Eva Gordon]
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009
Unfortunately, Rohner Segnitz sings 95% of his vocals in a kind of breathless coo, sounding all too much like the kind of emasculated American Apparel T-shirt model that the band's videos paint him as.
[Chris Middleman]
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009
High Noon Saloon, Madison, WI, 06/30/09
[Michael Merline]
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009
Likely to appeal to both those familiar with the group as well as fans who stopped listening after Southern Rock Opera or The Dirty South, this release shows the band occasionally wandering outside its comfort zone, showcasing the fine qualities that separate DBT from its less innovative country-rock brethren.
[Eric Dennis]
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009
Much of Light also raises the question of Matisyahu's authenticity. If the guy has strong beliefs and wants to communicate those musically, it's probably a good thing if he can manage to improve on the largely (and justifiably) maligned genre of American religious rock.
[Michael Merline]
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009
Long waits, loud customers and a big gaffe for Seattle's rainy months. The chicken and waffles are divine, however.
[Nicola Fairhead]
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009
Art & Copy is a stylish, frank look at an industry that still remains so mysterious to so many people, especially in the post-"Mad Men" culture.
[Morgan Davis]
Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009
The band that would ultimately record and release their debut album in 1976 was not the same band that garnered all the buzz and hype in 1972. That band can only be heard in live performances like Precise Modern Lovers Order with their earnest and heartfelt raucous energy on songs like the soon-to-be classic "Roadrunner," captured with speaker-bulging intensity.
[Sean Marchetto]
Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009
Like the actual music, all things Patrick Wolf are complex, stuffed full of vague references and enough twists and turns to make Hitchcock throw up his hands in resignation.
[Morgan Davis]
Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009
On his 11th full length LP, Blood from Stars, veteran folk, jazz, blues and alt-country enthusiast Joe Henry re-establishes himself as a master of blending genres and as a profound songwriter - not to mention as a compelling bluesman and gifted guitarist -- whose complex musical arrangements embrace a variety of extremes.
[Marcus David]
Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009
Though there are many tense moments, especially once the leadership of the Baader Meinhof gang is scooped up by the police, much of the film force feeds us key events and people in breathless fast forward just to move us along to the gory bits.
[David Harris]
Archives
|
