It’s been nine years since First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad, the first album from The Music Tapes, was released on Merge. The Music Tapes is the recording and performance collective formed by Julian Koster. Julian is perhaps best known as the purveyor of the haunting sounds of the singing saws in Neutral Milk Hotel.
Weezer – Pork and Beans / 2008 Geffen / 1 Track / http://www.weezer.com / Weezer have came back from the precipice of mediocrity with “Pork and Beansâ€. This track really calls forth some of Weezer’s earliest (and best) tracks; hints of “My Name is Jonas†and “Suzanne†are present in this song. The slinky guitar line that is prominent during the track works well with Rivers Cuomo’s vocals, while there…
Busta Rhymes (Feat. Linkin Park) – We Made It / 2008 Aftermath / 3 Tracks / http://www.bustarhymes.com / http://www.aftermath-entertainment.com / Linkin Park has worked with rappers before. Individuals would do to look back to the mash-up album that they had with “Numb/Encoreâ€. Busta Rhymes is gradually gaining back some of the momentum that ey had a few years back, especially when one hears eir hot flow on Missy Eliot’s Chin…
Mindi Abair – Stars / 2008 Peak / 11 Tracks / http://www.mindiabair.com / http://www.peakrecords.com / This is Abair’s fourth full length album. Ey made eir big splash with 2003’s “It Just Happens That Wayâ€, and is currently the host of “Chillâ€, which previously was hosted by Chris Botti. The smooth jazz of Abair first hits listeners during the disc’s inaugural track, “Smileâ€. This hopeful, happy song needs nothing in the…
Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark / 2008 Sony / 12 Tracks / http://www.neildiamond.com / It’s amazing when the amount of albums that you have sold, if limited to the United States, would provide a copy of a Neil Diamond album to one in every three citizens. This fact is almost as amazing as the fact that Diamond has been recording for nearly fifty years; 1960 saw the release of…
Van Morrison – Under Review 1964-1974 / 2008 MVD / 112 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / Van Morrison is a name that individuals will know even if their tastes of music in no way are comparable to the works that Van Morrison has created over the last forty-plus years. “Under Review†has went and covered Van Morrison’s earliest years, giving individuals a documentary that covers the period where Astral Weeks, Moondance,…
How To Cook Your Life / 2008 Lionsgate / 93 Minutes / http://www.lionsgate.com / Doris Dorrie is a name that is not too commonly known in the United States. Much of what Dorrie has done in the last twenty-years has been for the German market. Eir movies were titled Geld, Paradies, and Keiner Liebt Mich. “Enlightenment Guaranteedâ€, eir 2002 film, was the first time that Dorrie broke in a major…
Allan Holdsworth and Alan Pasqua Featuring Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Haslip / 2008 MVD / 85 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / This DVD features a number of individuals that have been around the rock scene for an incredibly long time. Allan Holdsworth started releasing music in 1969, presenting eirself on an Igginbottom recording; eir solo career began in 1976, with “Velvet Darknessâ€. Alan Pasqua has spent time in both Eddie Money’s…
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2-Disc Collector’s Edition) / 2008 Disney / 125 Minutes / http://www.disneydvd.com / National Treasure 2 is obviously the sequel to the 2004 film that starred Nicolas Cage. While I thought it was a flop in terms of ticket sales, I guess I was wrong: it has racked up nearly 500 million in ticket revenues since it was originally released. The story itself revolves around…
Not long since wreaking havoc on Austin, Texas during SXSW, the illustrious Ed Harcourt will return to the States from his native England to perform on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Friday, June 6. Timed perfectly with the release of his fourth full-length album, THE BEAUTIFUL LIE, due June 3 on Dovecote Records, Harcourt will celebrate the arrival of this much-awaited LP with a national television debut.
There’s a new place where individuals can go forth and work promoting services and things for a number of advertisers. This web site is Socialspark (www.socialspark.com). The site gives individuals tools to place on their web site to monitor the number of hits that the web site garners, to ensure that advertisers and bloggers alike are matched together. As a web site gets more popular, the more chances that that…
Equal Vision Records and DAMIERA announce a June 24, 2008 release date for their sophomore record, QUIET MOUTH, LOUD HANDS. The four-piece self-recorded & produced the eleven-track set over a four month period which began November 1, 2007 at a studio they built in Niagara Falls, NY.
This is a reprint of the original zine, where the editor Mike made notes about the pieces he had originally wrote 4 years before. Where he says that the zine sound amazingly well, I just don’t see what that was. I mean, the zine is a fun read, but bogged down by a lot of teen angst issues that just made a lot of the pieces run together for me.…
The title of THE IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES seventh proper full length is a sigil. A sigil is often used in magic and can take an aural form. This particular sigil is a potent symbol of desire, but, this sigil is unpronounceable – so you can call the album “The Impossible Shapes”.
 New years demand fresh tactics. So when Jake the Snake moved to New York this year to pen his new release, When in Rome, he shed his skin and emerged from underground a tougher, more enlightened J the S.
National Lampoon Presents Cattle Call / 2008 Lionsgate / 87 Minutes / http://www.lionsgate.com / “Cattle Call†is a film where Sherman (Andrew Katos, a relative newcomer to acting) and Glenn (Diedrich Baker, from The Drew Carey Show) attempt to find the girl of their dreams – their wet dreams. By creating a fake casting company, they are able to find a number of females that will hopefully fulfill their desires.…
Dream Pinball 3D (Wii) / 2008 SouthPeak / http://www.southpeakgames.com / One of the first games that I remembered playing on a Windows box had to be “3D Pinballâ€. While the graphics were more than decent for the time, they suffer considerably in the current period. Similarly, the last pinball game that I played on a console had to be Sonic Pinball, and who knows how long ago that game was…
Tristan Prettyman – Hello…x / 2008 Virgin / 12 Tracks / http://www.tristanprettyman.com / Tristan Prettyman is still a pretty new force to popular music. Eir first album, “t w e n t y t h r e e†rocketed up the Heatseekers chart before ultimately peaking at #24. If individuals did not have the chance to pick up eir first album, they may also be familiar with Prettyman’s work on…
Gladys Hardy – I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little / 2008 WEA / 25 Tracks / http://www.gladyshardy.com / Individuals may not immediately know who Gladys Hardy is, but if they have seen the Ellen Degeneres show in the last few months, chances are good that they heard a call from Hardy. If you don’t watch the Ellen show (I know I don’t), Gladys Hardy also calls in to…
Song of the Siren…Isul Kim (vox, guitar) – A Korean-American girl with a Harvard degree raised on classical piano in New York City, Anthony Petrocchi (drums) – a native Californian with a Red Hot Chili Peppers tattoo, harnessing his ADD energy by playing drums nonstop and Steve Muscatell (guitar) – a metal-screamo-hardcore musician and ex-model from southern Oregon. Song of the Siren was realized in the summer of 2007 in…