Hip Hop Life / 2007 Universal / 79 Minutes / http://www.universal.com / I like rap battle DVDs. That much is true. Hip Hop Life has a rap battle in it, but one has to wonder why exactly they picked the judges that they picked. Jadakiss for all intensive purposes was a two-hit wonder (“Why†and “U Make Me Wannaâ€), MC Lyte hasn’t been relevant since 1997, and Freeway hasn’t hit…
The lineup for the Pygmalion Music Festival, taking place this year from Sept 19th-22nd in Champaign-Urbana, IL, has been announced. This year will feature over 70 national and regional independent artists from the US and Canada. The festival will be headlined by the eclectic violinist virtuoso Andrew Bird, as well as by critical darlings Okkervil River. The festival will be curated yet again by the Nicodemus Agency with the help…
 Launching their latest campaign in the war against false metal, HEAVY ARTILLERY is proud to announce the addition of Swedish speed metal powerhouse ENFORCER to their growing arsenal of bands. Regarded highly within the thriving international metal community, ENFORCER have carved their niche with a unique combination of sounds from New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the manic riffing of early American speed metal. The three ENFORCER tracks…
Who is Mary Lightfine and what projects is she currently working on? (Answered in third person) After working sixteen years as a nurse in emergency rooms throughout the United States, Mary Lightfine uproots her life and plants herself in the middle of Mogadishu, Somalia where she decides to join an organization called Doctors Without Borders. This decision gave her a chance to feel what war, starvation and desperation was like…
Abingdon/ Marion/ Pulaski, VA — Brandon Welch, Jordan Powers, Mark Karsten, Joseph Powers, Elizabeth Pina, and Todd Turner – an innocent enough series of six random names; but when combined with each other, they represent the powerhouse rock and roll sextet from Virginia that is called Far-Less – true evidence that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The band’s sophomore album, “A Toast To Bad Taste,”…
Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace / 2006 MVD / 116 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / http://www.odessafilmworks.com/hkatpn / Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace is done by the director that did “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunterâ€. Saying that, Harry Knuckles feels more like a Troma movie than anything else. Even Lloyd Kaufman is present in a small role during the movie. The movie tells a story about a super-spy named Harry Knuckles…
Music Video for Group’s Debut Single Features Canada’s Largest Indoor Playground, 90’s Fly Dancers, and Time Travel Canadian progressive-metal newcomers, What’s He Building In There? (WHBIT?), have revealed their premiere music video for the song “Avian Taxi.†“Avian Taxi†is the first single taken from What’s He Building In There’s self-titled debut album, which was released earlier this year by Year of The Sun Records. The video can be viewed…
That’s right, head over to http://www.altpress.com/media to stream “The Best In Me (Electro Mix)”, a brand new Sherwood track that’s not available anywhere else!
Jason Aldean, Big Kenny Alphin, Shooter Jennings, Little Big Town And More To Join BentleyNashville, Tenn. – Sept. 5, 2007 – Award winning singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley will once again host his “Miles & Music for Kids” celebrity motorcycle ride and concert to benefit Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital on Sunday, September 30 in Nashville, Tenn. This year’s event includes a new ride route down the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway ending at the…
John Hammond – Paris Concert / 2006 MVD / 126 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / John Hammond is another of those jazz people that I had no clue about before turning on eir “Paris Concertâ€. After the concert was done, I was completely in eir corner. The performance was covered well; four cameras were able to pick up this 2004 show. And hell, even the bonus content on this DVD was…
San Francisco, CA – Spreading lush electronic arrangements and rhodes electric piano under the ever-lonesome beacon of the county (pedal steel), Birds & Batteries discover the urban pastoral in a simple song. Comparable to Neil Young and M83, or Randy Newman meets Gary Newman.
Birds and Batteries – I’ll Never Sleep Again / 2007 Self / 13 Tracks / http://www.birdsandbatteries.com What the country’s new obsession with annoying Mario Cart music like The Snow Patrol and Hellogoodbye is, I will never figure out. Nor will I be able to forgive people like my sister, 17 and a cheerleader, for blasting the annoying, synthetic beats every morning for her workout. Good job, America, for getting away…
Jamie Reynolds, James Righton & Simon Taylor collectively and best known as Klaxons beat fellow newcomers Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys & Jamie T with their apocalyptic pop debut Myths of the Near Future out now of Geffen.
God Save The Queen: A Punk Rock Anthology / 2006 MVD / 70 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / Starting off this DVD with the intense “Sonic Reducer†by Youngstown’s Dead Boys, a tempo and overall feel is created with this DVD that shows punk in all of its gritty glory. Some of the footage seems to be taken off of VHS tapes; for example, the U.K. Subs’ “CID†is taken (I…
“Earthtones & Concrete” to hit stores Oct 2nd, 2007 on Inner Current TAKE (aka Thomas Wilson) is a Los Angeles-based composer who expands the range of instrumental hip-hop into vivid new realms. With multiple successful EPs under his belt, TAKE is set to unleash “Earthtones & Concrete,” his debut full-length player upon the masses.
Catman Cohen’s Prayer For America  / 2007 Self / 6:19 / http://www.catmancohen.com / I think this is a first for NeuFutur. While we have reviewed full videos and audio singles in the past, this is the first time that we have ever reviewed a single music video. We have reviewed Catman Cohen in the past, reviewing both eir “How I Want To Live†and “How I Want To Die†albums.…
What I Want From You Is Sweet is the debut release from Orion Rigel Dommisse on Language of Stone, the Philadephia-based label run by Greg and Jessica Weeks (members of Espers and Woodwose respectively). The album was recorded and mixed to entirely analog formats at Greg’s Hexham Head studio with Orion and Greg co-producing. What I Want From You Is Sweet is released September 25 on Language of Stone, distributed…
Gillan – Live Edinburgh 1980 / 2006 MVD / 120 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / The brutality of the music that starts out this DVD is confusing. To hear something so raw and rough should remind listeners of early-eighties Iron Maiden or (even more) Judas Priest. The fact that there can be current and past incarnations of Gillan’s work shows that the fire that resided in eir during Deep Purple (“Smoke…
The apex of Our Little Hymnal comes in the form of “Marylawn Hair.†Multiple loops and moody harmonies fire off in the background keeping the song moving forward, while allowing the band to channel some of shoegaze’s heyday and intertwine with some of prog rocks finest moments as well.
Brandi Shearer – Pink Lady / 2006 Self / 14 Tracks / http://www.brandishearer.com / http://www.amoeba.com I spent the better part of my 18 years on Earth dogmatically honoring the industrial cacophony of bands like Wumpscut and Front Line Assembly, so it seemed a radical and incomprehensible move when I abandoned synthesizers in exchange for acoustic guitar.