Author: James

Posted on: July 29, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Minus the Bear Tours, Releases New Album, Solves Global Warming

Minus the Bear is set to embark on the first leg of a major world tour, in support of their critically acclaimed release, Planet of Ice, out August 21, 2007 on Suicide Squeeze Records. The tour, which kicks off September 22, 2007 in Seattle with commercial station KNDD’s Endfest, will be the first of many dates across the globe and will continue well into 2008.

Posted on: July 29, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

50 Cent – AYO Technology (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)

50 Cent – AYO Technology (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland) / 2007 Shady / 4 Tracks / http://www.50cent.com / I thought that 50 Cent was supposed to be hard, a ghetto warrior that was shot a shitload of times and lived to rap about it. Last time I checked, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland do not seem to be individuals that scream “street cred”. They are able to bash out catchy…

Posted on: July 28, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Poet’s Espresso June/July

Poet’s Espresso June/July Issue / Free / :10 / 28M / [email protected] / I typically don’t like poetry zines. The poetry in a lot of them seems too forced, like the writers themselves are trying to immediately equal a Tennyson or Williams. However, Poet’s Espresso is a poetry magazine that I can actually appreciate. This is due to the fact that none of the poets seem to be putting on…

Posted on: July 28, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Army of Me – Citizen

Army of Me – Citizen / 2007 Doghouse / 12 Tracks / http://www.armyofmeonline.com / http://www.doghouserecords.com / ”Perfect” starts off “Citizen”, and it has a sound that parallels a blend of Simple Plan and Say Anything, but individuals would barely know that from the quiet vocals and guitars that start off the track. The production present during this track is interesting, and it seems to vary as much as the arrangements…

Posted on: July 28, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Patchwork – Work and Worry

Patchwork – Work and Worry / 2007 Self / 6 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/patchworknoise / It seems as if less and less truly independent bands are sending me their material for review. As the magazine has grown, fewer and fewer unsigned acts find their way into a review. I have no clue why that is, as NeuFutur reviews everything that we receive, but it is always nice to hear a band…

Posted on: July 28, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

AMD sponsors Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival

AMD (NYSE:AMD) announced today that it will again chronicle Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival this year as it did in 2004, this time using multi-core AMD Opteron(tm) processor-based digital audio workstations (DAWs) and adding notebook PCs into the mix for smaller stages.

Posted on: July 28, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Machine Head – The Blackening

Machine Head – The Blackening / 2007 Roadrunner / 8 Tracks / http://www.machinehead1.com / http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com / Machine Head is a band that has been around for about as long as I have listened to metal. Their first album came out in 1994, and the band was around for a few years before that. So, “The Blackening”, their sixth album, should be a pinnacle with which they can achieve new levels…

Posted on: July 27, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

With Passion – What We See When We Shut Our Eyes

With Passion – What We See When We Shut Our Eyes / 2006 Earache / 10 Tracks / http://www.withpassionmetal.com / http://www.earache.com / This California band does not take more than ten seconds to start rocking the faces off of their listeners. The music that they play is a brand of progressive cum speed metal that is shrill, melodic, and orchestral all at the same time. The band can bring the…

Posted on: July 27, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

TAB Announces Summer Tour, Debut LP

TAB formed in December, 2006 after Tony and Adrian decided they wanted to start a rap group featuring the characters Professor Bizniss and Tony Vegas, two fun loving lotharios who loved the ladies, money, and pimpin straight out of the south shore of Massachusetts.

Posted on: July 27, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Call It Arson – The Animal Strings Album

Call It Arson – The Animal Strings Album / 2007 Kill Normal / 6 Tracks / http://www.callitarson.com / Call It Arson is a band that has been together in some form since 1994, and while the band did not start to become a serious venture until a few years ago, the tempestuous type of indie meets rock music that starts out “The Animal Strings Album” shows that the band is…

Posted on: July 27, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Snatches of Pink – Love is Dead

Snatches of Pink – Love is Dead / 2007 Self / 15 Tracks / http://www.snatchesofpink.com / Snatches of Pink on their “Love is Dead” play a brand of sleaze rock that brings individuals back to the days of Spinal Tap and the New York Dolls. The lead vocals during “Rocks” (and extended to the whole of the disc) have more than a passing resemblance to those provided by Mike Ness…

Posted on: July 27, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

The Hammer: The Best of Hank Aaron

The Hammer: The Best of Hank Aaron / 2007 Borders / $14.95 / 144M / 1:50 / The subtitle of this book is “From the Pages of Sports Illustrated”, and the tile really gives individuals a good idea what focus that the book may have. This was culled together from the material written about Hank Aaron throughout eir career by the individuals at Sports Illustrated. More so, the language used…

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Clamor #36

Clamor #36 / $5.50 / 100M / http://www.clamormagazine.org / I always feel bad when I review earlier issues of a magazine, especially those that have shut their doors recently. However, this issue is just too good to pass up. There are pieces with the Coney Island Polar Bear Club (which shows a humorous side of Clamor that does not usually come through during issues of this magazine), along with a…

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Strange Mike Steel

Strange Mike Steel / 2005 Mouse Chew / $3 / 32M / [email protected] / Strange Mike Steel is a comic that feels as if it came out about thirty years ago. Philip is extremely influenced by this earlier style, but is able to tell a story without really going into the more fanciful story-telling styles of the stories of the era. The first page starts out with an interesting note,…

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

OST: Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof

OST: Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof / 2007 Warner Bros / 16 Tracks / http://www.warnerbros.com / http://www.deathproof.net / Everyone knows that this soundtrack is for the movie that was Quentin Tarantino’s part of Grindhouse, “Death Proof”. The tracks here feel like they are taken from an earlier period. The first track on this score is Jack Nitzche’s “The Last Race”. This track has the seventies orchestral heaviness present in droves, with…

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Slug #223

Slug #223 / Free / 1:00 / 68M / http://www.slugmag.com / For those individuals that have not seen any of the prior reviews of Slug, this is a free zine that is handed out in the Salt Lake City (Utah) region. However, the zine gets a little more in the way of legs when individuals read the feature pieces in the issue. The one thing that seems to have changed…

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Trapt Has World Premiere of “Stay Alive” on Yahoo

Trapt is holding the world premiere of their new video “Stay Alive” on Yahoo today. The band wanted to do something a little different and utilize some of the great talent that exists on the web to create their new video. The band searched hard and found Mile Kalbach, an amazing claymation artists who was a fan of the band.

Posted on: July 26, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Nerve #1

Nerve #1 / Free / 28L / :45 / Nerve House, P.O. Box 12255, Milwaukee, WI 53212 / I was really looking forward to Nerve when I looked at the first page of the zine. In it, it says “There’s no poetry in it”.  I assumed that there was no poetry in the entire issue, but I guess the author just meant that there is no poetry in the word…

Posted on: July 25, 2007 Posted by: James Comments: 0

Protest Hill – The City Echoes Our Hearts

Protest Hill – The City Echoes Our Hearts / 2007 Latest Flame / 11 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/protesthill / http://www.latestflame.com / Protest Hill plays a brand of indie-heavy pop-rock that is similar to the work of a Fray, Ben Folds, or Jack Johnson. “All That You Need” is the first track on “The City Echoes Our Hearts”, and it blends Tori Amos ‘s style of piano playing with bassy instrumentation and…