Corb Lund – Things That Can’t Be Undone (CD)
Leave it to a Canadian to come out with one of the year’s best alt country albums. On ‘Things That Can’t be Undone,’ Alberta native Corb Lund has managed to streamline his sound over the past two decades,
Author: John B. Moore
Aloke – Alive (Vinyl)
It’s not clear yet whether Aloke, a new group featuring Grouplove singer Christian Zucconi, is a one-off side project or a full-fledged band with a future beyond this debut. But, if Zucconi opts for the latter, Aloke could give Grouplove a run for its money.
Soul Boys of the Western World (DVD)
A documentary about one-hit wonders (at least here in the U.S.) Spandau Ballet seems like an odd sell. But thanks to its loose feel and frank interviews, the movie somehow works. The London band led the New Romantic movement in the early ’80s alongside fellow eyeliner and blouse-clad bands like Duran Duran and OMD.
Riot Club (DVD)
The premise of the British indie Riot Club is pretty intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution of the movie is not nearly as impressive and falls apart half way into the drama.
Kinsey – My Loneliest Debut (Self-Released)
Call it indie music for folks that don’t exactly dig indie music. On My Loneliest Debut, Kinsey (Nick Kinsey) creates a massive sound out of acoustic guitars, pianos, synths, clarinets and just about every other instrument laying around the studio. The result is a wild, beautiful collection of songs that easily move from the colossal (like the opener “Wide Awake”) to smaller, more stripped down moments (“Dawn,” “Chateau Ludlow”), all…
Reckless: My Life as a Pretender by Chrissie Hynde
In her much-anticipated bio, The Pretenders front woman Chrissie Hynde gives a remarkably frank look into her life growing up as a teen and early 20-something in her native Dayton, Ohio before uprooting and relocating to London and finding herself at the center of the punk rock movement.
Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)
The 1980s were a boon for independent punk rock scenes in America as kids from the suburbs to the city realized they could start a band with little more than angst and a willingness to play loud music. Washington DC, thanks in part to the conservative Reagan and Bush administrations there, gave rise to one of the most exciting punk scenes at the time.
All American High Revisited (DVD)
This 1987 documentary was never really considered a seminal film. It was selected for Sundance, seen by some and then forgotten. But with the release of American High Revisited the film gets a second chance. It shows what an average California high school in 1984 looked like, through the eyes of a foreign exchange student attending the school for a year.
A.J. Croce – That’s Me in the Bar [20th Anniversary Edition] (CD)
You’d think being the son of a famous musician would unlock a ton of doors. And it might, but it also usually puts a ton of unnecessary pressure on the offspring to live up to the wildly unrealistic expectations.
Texas Rising (DVD)
After countless bizarre alien-based TV shows, The History Channel finally decided to take itself seriously once again with the 10-episode drama Texas Rising. And despite some questionable playing around with facts, the series is solidly entertaining
Love & Mercy (DVD)
Easily the best music-based biopic to come along in years, Love & Mercy focuses on the tragic period in the life of Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson when he was struggling with mental problems and under the control of Svengali Dr. Eugene Landy (played flawlessly evil by Paul Giamatti).
The Kickback – Sorry All Over the Place
Thanks to a slew of cheap-to-free recording software anyone can make an album’s worth of music now, regardless of how mediocre their sound is. The guys that make up Chicago’s (by way of South Dakota) The Kickback, however, took their time building up to a full length. Through years of touring and three EPs, the four-piece indie rock outfit built up a strong collection of tried-and-true rockers and finally committed…
Mad Season – Live at the Moore
In terms of 1990s supergroups, Mad Season was easily one of the best. Comprised of Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Screaming Trees’ drummer Barrett Martin and Walkabouts’ bassist John Baker Saunders – all Seattle residents riding high on the success of grunge at the time – the side project ran from 1994 until Saunders death in 1999. Though they only put out one record,…
Soaked in Bleach DVD Review
It would be easy to dismiss Soaked in Bleach – part documentary/part acted out drama – as just another exploitative title in the growing “Kurt Cobain Was Murdered” genre.
Simon & Garfunkel – The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Vinyl)
Ever wonder who was the most pissed off guy in the 70’s? My money is on Art Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel had just left the 60’s behind with a few Grammys and a ton of stellar songs on their resume. After calling it quits, (apparently Garfunkel pulled the plug so he could embark on an acting career) Paul Simon took a year or two off and comes out with his…
Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in The Alice Cooper Group by Dennis Dunaway and Chris Hodenfield
One of the most surprising revelations to come out of the memoir from Alice Cooper’s former bassist is not the fact that Cooper was an alcoholic (Cooper has admitted that himself), it’s not how callously he ditched his childhood friends for interchangeable band mates once he started to make it big and go solo; rather it’s the fact that Cooper, long since sober, ended up not only reading the memoir,…
Gregg Allman – Live: Back to Macon, GA (CD/DVD Set)
Although the Allman Brothers may have officially called it a day in 2014, co-founder and namesake Gregg Allman is still going strong. His last record of original songs came out just four years ago and he continues to hit the road. And Back to Macon, this two CD/DVD set, proves he’s still a top caliber performer.
Rank Strangers – Ringtones
Minneapolis has one of the most consistently brilliant, yet somehow overlooked music scenes out there. From Prince and Morris Day to The Replacements and Soul Asylum, this Midwest musical hub too often gets glossed over when people start ticking off the list of great U.S. scenes. Rank Strangers are just further proof that the City of Lakes can still pull its weight musically.
Bitten: the Complete Second Season DVD Set
It would be easy to dismiss Bitten as yet another cable series piggybacking off of the True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf formula. Much like those other shows, it is populated by impossibly pretty small town folk who just happen, in the case of Bitten, to be Werewolves.
Ex Machina DVD Review
The sci-fi (ish) thriller Ex Machina is seemingly simple in its construct: a brilliant techie CEO builds a human-looking robot with advanced artificial intelligence and gets one of his employees to interact with it over a week; but the plot twists are remarkably clever and turns this movie into a wildly creative, tense thriller that plays out in the very last moments. The acting is mostly limited to Oscar Isaac…