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]
January 2010 Archives
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
Written by a gambling addict, starring at least one gambling addict and directed by a heavy gambler, the production's truthfulness is deeply rooted in its makers' own histories.
[Andrei Alupului]
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
44 Inch Chest might be the first film ever made about a mopey gangster. No surprise that the film comes from the minds who wrote Sexy Beast
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
Classical Gypsy Vaudeville Circus Metal. It's not a term often (or ever) heard, but that doesn't mean this absurd unconventional hybrid doesn't exist.
[Jory Spadea]
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
Although the basic elements stay consistent throughout the album, Gainsbourg and Beck manage to stretch the boundaries of a formula to both great and poor effect.
[Nathan Kamal]
Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
Singer Sandra Barrett's range is simply no match for the guitar fervor on this record.
[Chris Middleman]
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
When J.D. Salinger died last week at 91, it marked the passing of one of the 20th century's most influential, beloved and fiercely private authors.
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
Mr Smalls Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, 10/16/09
[Melissa Muenz]
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
There Is Love in You sees Hebden return to the euphoria and accessibility of Rounds though he no longer resembles the artist who produced that seminal work.
[Brady Baker]
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
Largely instrumental and dominated by Gooden's shimmering, deceptively simple guitars, These Mountains Are Safe never quite becomes an ambient album and remains a little too grounded and firm to turn into dream pop..
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010
Although filmed in the '70s, Word is Out is still very much alive with the ability to move and inspire.
[Allyn Sterling]
Thursday, Jan 28, 2010
In this third of seven parts, members of our staff put together a list which picks the best baddies from 1939-2009, year by year.
Thursday, Jan 28, 2010
Though Mel Gibson gets right back on the horse that threw him off, Edge of Darkness is not the triumphant return to the screen for the tarnished star.
[David Harris]
Thursday, Jan 28, 2010
The Spectrum Culture staff selects, what they believe to be, the sleaziest songs ever.
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
Despite a few tracks that go on too long, Astro Coast is undoubtedly a winner.
[Jason Stoff]
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
End Times is a stark contrast and fitting complement to Hombre Lobo, rejecting the latter's hopeful outlook in favor of reluctant acceptance and increasing disillusionment.
[Michael Merline]
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
The horny jock, the nerdy intellectual, the stoner who can't seem to shut up, all of them seem to be people inhabiting Linklater's film rather than stock characters to be used.
[Nathan Kamal]
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
A Room and a Half suffers in that it is an essentially autobiographical story that is not actually an autobiography - it attempts to infer someone else's perspective and symbolic order of images.
[Andrei Alupului]
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010
9:30 Club, Washington D.C., 11/27/09
[Neal Fersko]
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010
There are echoes of such stalwarts of slow, pretty music as late Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star and Low, but Beach House never sound derivative.
[Lukas Sherman]
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010
Absolute Polysics is exactly what you'd expect from a new Polysics record. It's short, punchy, full of frivolous retro-rock splendor and utterly devoid of shame.
[Luke Winkie]
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010
Don't mess with tradition. Do it mom's way and save a few bucks.
[Lauren Westerfield]
Monday, Jan 25, 2010
"We've known each other so long and we're such good friends, I don't even think about the fact that I'm a girl and that they're guys."
[KayJay]
Monday, Jan 25, 2010
Consisting of singles, demos, outtakes, cover songs and alternate versions, Couple Tracks covers most of Fucked Up's best work of the last decade.
[Eric Dennis]
Monday, Jan 25, 2010
Tape Deck Mountain makes yet another good case for the power of lo-fi pop music. In an increasingly polished world, a little fuzz and distortion can do the ears and the heart well.
[Nathan Kamal]
Monday, Jan 25, 2010
"I think I must have one of those faces you can't help believing."
[Andrei Alupului]
Monday, Jan 25, 2010
Cohen seems an incongruous figure for a huge festival, but his set turned out to be a highlight and provided some much needed intelligence and tranquility.
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Jan 24, 2010
New York Dolls' debut album was the sound of a couple of young guys rampaging through the city while the city rampaged right back through their psyches.
[Chris Middleman]
Sunday, Jan 24, 2010
Although most bands that focus on the lonely topics of puppy love and broken hearts grow tiresome after a single record, the Magnetic Fields somehow continue to sound as fresh and innovative as they ever have.
[Marcus David]
Sunday, Jan 24, 2010
As it stands, Mountain Debris works best when listened to as a collection of demos.
[Chris Middleman]
Sunday, Jan 24, 2010
If Cronenberg and Egoyan's canon largely consists of anonymous and therefore universal alienation, Maddin's consists of the alienation that comes with living in a country with an inferiority complex.
[Morgan Davis]
Sunday, Jan 24, 2010
The Paranoids is a dreamy, occasionally disorienting dark comedy that succeeds, not so much in making revolutionary declarations of its own, but rather in exploring stereotypical characters from an intriguing angle.
[Lauren Westerfield]
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010
Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR 11/17/09
[David Harris]
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010
Los Campesinos! still haven't steered through clouds of darkly romantic music without succumbing to placid bleakness.
[Neal Ferkso]
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010
Members of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead come together for this brief, but interesting EP.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010
Couples functions as a prescient indictment of the still incipient sexual revolution, as well as a withering piece of suburban satire.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010
The 64-year-old André Téchiné isn't interested in a soapy weeper but a complex story that takes on the dilemmas of anti-Semitism, drugs and neglect in modern France.
[David Harris]
Thursday, Jan 21, 2010
In this second of seven parts, members of our staff put together a list which picks the best baddies from 1939-2009, year by year.
Thursday, Jan 21, 2010
What this movie really gets right is the cultural currency that music takes on in youth, the way it dictates the delineations between kids, and the subtle distinctions that can be drawn from them.
[Andrei Alupului]
Thursday, Jan 21, 2010
Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR, 10/20/09
[Lukas Sherman]
Thursday, Jan 21, 2010
The collaborations on The Colossus are certainly a success. The same can't be said for RJD2's solo offerings, which hit or miss as often as they flip genres.
[Jory Spadea]
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
Slacker is impossible to mistake for anything but a Linklater film: it lacks narrative structure, choosing instead to seamlessly flow through a day in the life of the city of Austin.
[Morgan Davis]
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
The only really discernible point of view contained in the film is that this situation is a bummer and hopefully these people can get their dogs back.
[Andrei Alupului]
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
"I hope not, because we're going to play some with those guys soon, and if it did I'm gonna beat them up."
[Melissa Muenz]
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
Real Life is No Cool is a world where sidewalk lights up like dancefloors, the '80s never ended and white blazers are still totally hip.
[Luke Winkie]
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
The customer-is-always-right knee jerk response is predictable and undoubtedly responsible for the scattered trash reviews of Terroni's service.
[Brady Baker]
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
[Marcus David]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
It seems Veirs has traded studying rocks for canning peaches, letting her defenses crumble and her vulnerabilities glow. Even her enunciation is more ethereal.
[Barbara Mitchell]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
Rather than fill in the empty spaces with voiceover and interviews, the directors just let the cameras roll and allow us to witness the final drive of sheep over Montana's Beartooth mountains.
[David Harris]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
Rashomon's position amongst the all-time classics will grow more secure as time goes by.
[James Shelledy]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
Perhaps most infuriating of all is Denzel Washington's character lacks, well, character. His Eli is nothing more than a cipher for Jesus or any other prophet, yet this prophet lacks any temptation: first, middle or last.
[David Harris]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
As it stands today, In Utero sounds more like a partial deconstruction of the Nevermind sound that a complete break from it.
[Eric Dennis]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
As you might expect with a band at the boards on their own album, there's a lot of vintage Spoon on Transference.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
Whether we are buying toothpaste at the grocery store, throwing down an entire paycheck on a designer handbag or ordering eco-friendly hemp clothing online, shopping is an integral component of life in America--recession or not.
[Jessica Bari]
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
In this first of seven parts, members of our staff put together a list which picks the best baddies from 1939-2009, year by year.
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
To further depress you about the supreme waste of talent at work in this film, the score is by Brian Eno.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
You read correctly. 2004. The Spectrum Culture staff picks its top albums from five years ago.
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
Mulatu Astatke was a musical mixologist with flavors borrowed from his Ethiopian origins and his education in contemporary Western jazz.
[Zac Dillon]
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010
Linklater's first feature length project is useful mostly in terms of context, a hopelessly flawed film perched on a spindly foundation of good intentions.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010
Garbage Dreams is not only a group study but a discourse on our relationship with garbage, specifically the sheer amount of trash a city produces.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010
So much slow motion. So much campiness. So many straining tank tops. We've come a long way, baby.
[Nathan Kamal]
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010
Although chowders are traditionally prepared with either some variety of pork or seafood, definitions are fast and loose these days.
[Nathan Kamal]
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010
Forge does what collections of this sort should, bringing together rare tunes by disparate artists all working within the same field.
[Aaron Passman]
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
Perhaps the dated nature of Swingers actually helps it in the long run.
[Nathan Kamal]
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
Believe it. A one-man film based on the source material of Sylvester Stallone's First Blood. And it's really, really good!
[Andrei Alupului]
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
"I try to write lyrics that are conversational. Like me in a pub talking. These are the things I talk about. I'm pissed off that all these bands sound like U2 or I love comics or I just heard the Replacements."
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
Heartland is a nearly cinematic listen, although both the inscrutability of Pallett's lyrics and his tendency to bury his own fine, if slightly unmemorable, voice deep in the mix make the lyrics frequently difficult to decipher.
[Nathan Kamal]
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
Devil Eyes plays like a bunch of songs and jokes you've already heard.
[Chris Middleman]
Monday, Jan 11, 2010
Vampire Weekend's sophomore album couldn't be better timed, as January is a bleak month, in terms of both climate and music releases.
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Jan 10, 2010
What is most astonishing about The Human Condition is its wholesale condemnation of Japan's militarism in such a short time following World War II.
[David Harris]
Sunday, Jan 10, 2010
It soon becomes apparent that Heath Ledger's untimely death may very well generate the only interest in the film.
[Teri Carson]
Sunday, Jan 10, 2010
Kerouac uses his voice like a buoyant tenor sax, reciting and improvising with unparalleled and fluid brilliance.
[Marcus David]
Sunday, Jan 10, 2010
There's a lot to like on Wednesday Night, Everywhere, the gifted songwriter's debut solo EP.
[Marcus David]
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR, 11/17/09
[David Harris]
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
Though the Chime's catalog contains heavy amounts of stereotypically goth themes, their best songs are notable for their introspective undertones and social concerns.
[Eric Dennis]
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
The fact that Crazy Heart is still so compelling in spite of its predictable, almost clichéd, plot is a testament to its acting and directing.
[James Shelledy]
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
The Last Witchfinder's strength lies in its depiction of life in the chaos that was the New World.
[Morgan Davis]
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010
You read correctly. 2004. The Spectrum Culture staff picks its top films from five years ago.
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010
Youth in Revolt tries hard to look and sound different from other coming-of-age sex comedies, but in the end, the differences are merely superficial.
[James Shelledy]
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010
Continuing the vintage electro-R&B crust Cliquety Kliqk initiated, Paris native Salters dishes out another home-baked casserole of Moog-y Euro-lounge.
[Jory Spadea]
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
"Oh, it's a timestamp. There's no doubt a-fucking-bout it, man. This is a fucking timestamp. I can't do it now because it's so dated. I never do it. But at the time it was one of my greatest songs."
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
The real message of Yes! lies right in its title: positivity- which comes in abundance here.
[Cameron Mason]
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
As a dramatist, Michael Haneke's sensitivity to the explosive nature of human feeling leads to some really stunning moments.
[Andrei Alupului]
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
Southern California may not have rain, but one thing it's saturated with is Mexican restaurants.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010
Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR, 11/28/09
[David Harris]
Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010
There's something about Ben Nichols' fixation on the dark side that is genuinely galvanizing.
[Jason Stoff]
Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010
The Zemeckis we know from Forrest Gump and Contact is introduced here, where the Huey Lewis-loving man-child Fox shreds so hot on a Gibson hollow-body that Chuck Berry is inspired to follow suit.
[Chris Middleman]
Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010
A Single Man is a thought-provoking, cautionary tragedy that masterfully encapsulates life's fleeting pleasures that we do not appreciate until it's too late.
[David Harris]
Monday, Jan 4, 2010
Steven Watts has managed to do the near-impossible: turn Hugh Hefner's life into a plodding, monotonous and excruciatingly goddamn boring exercise in academic overkill and professorial tedium.
[Eric Dennis]
Monday, Jan 4, 2010
Police, Adjective is an examination of the way that language affects our daily life, and how the systems we create can turn poisonous to actual human concerns through an obsession with and abuse of language.
[Andrei Alupului]
Monday, Jan 4, 2010
Extended Vacation picks up where Sleeps With Fishes left off, though this time around Glenn Kotche and bassist Darin Gray favor a more compositional approach instead of previous improvisational tendencies.
[Jory Spadea]
Sunday, Jan 3, 2010
Until its recent DVD release, this 29 year-old long lost cult classic was one of the greatest rock 'n roll movies you never saw and you were never going see.
[Teri Carson]
Sunday, Jan 3, 2010
Nine cannot help but be a limp facsimile of a film that is so full of life and brio.
[David Harris]
Sunday, Jan 3, 2010
Vitalic's sound is a glossy club enterprise, and not much has changed some four years after his worthy debut.
[Michael Merline]
Sunday, Jan 3, 2010
Life is often portrayed as painfully transient at best in a Vic Chesnutt song. His albums are littered with characters whose little dramas we can recognize as our own and take consolation in.
[Eric Dennis]
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