Dave Bry’s first book is so brilliant in its simplicity it’s pretty astounding no one has thought of it before – the apology genre. Though his execution is so deft it’s almost certain if anyone had attempted this before it would not be as nearly memorable. Yes, I realize there is nothing new about self-confessional essays, but an entire book of apologies? I think we’re breaking new ground here folks.…
China Beach has long topped lists across the Internet and in countless magazines of the most-requested TV show still not available on DVD, despite being off the air now for more than 20 years. Well, our long national nightmare is finally over. Star Vista has just turned over a massive, 21 DVD collection, boasting all 62 episodes of the critically-lauded show, commentaries, gag reels, a slew of interviews, a 25th anniversary…
U2 may come to mind first when you think of 1980’s political rock bands, but Australia’s Midnight Oil were just as strident about filling their songs with strong political point of views – not exactly the norm in a music decade obsessed with inane lyrics (lest we forget, hair metal was born and raised in the 80’s and killed in the early 90’s). Their biggest hits were about the mistreatment…
With all the excitement generated months before Record Store Day and the lines of folks waiting outside to get that their hands on vinyl the third Saturday of every April, you might have assumed the independent record store was doing just fine. As the documentary Bricks And Mortar And Love reminds us, in most cases, the small mom and pop record store is still barely surviving. The movie focuses on…
With the travesty that is erupting in Syria right now, the fascinating documentary A Whisper to a Roar can serve as inspiration to just how powerful average citizens can be when they decide to say “Enough is enough” to the political status quo. Justifiably praised at independent film festivals across the globe when it was first screened last year, the film by Ben Moses looks at political revolutions in Egypt,…
For their second full length, Philly power pop band The Fleeting Ends seems to have dug deep into the crate of vinyl for inspiration pulling out everything from XTC and The Features to Cheap Trick and Material Issue – never a bad combo. The result, Our Eyes Are Peeled, is quite impressive. Songs like the strings-laced “Operator” and the slow-build goodness of “Poor Gloria” highlight a band that’s found…
I don’t care if you don’t know your Megadeth from your Metallica, your Fates Warning from your Mercyful Fate, it’s certain that you’re gonna lose several hours to The Merciless Book of Metal Lists. Yes. it’s that good. Complied by former music A&R rep Howie Abrams and music writer Sacha Jenkins, the book is a fantastically entertaining look at all things metal – from logos and t-shirts to bands, list…
While Game of Throne’s King Joffrey has become shorthand in describing TV villains, Kelsey Grammer’s Mayor Tom Kane – from the Starz series Boss – is arguably just as evil and just as much fun to watch. The mayor’s dementia – diagnosed in the first season – has done little to temper his nastiness. Along with his wife (Connie Nielsen), he still plays puppet master with the state’s politicians from…
The Iowa music scene was pretty diverse in 1995. Sadly, the band a majority of the world most commonly associates with the music scene there is Slipknot, the ridiculous costumed metal kids whose shtick is only rivaled in goofiness by the Insane Clown Posse. It’s strange to imagine then that a gimmick-free band, with actual musical talent like The Nadas, was formed in the same year just 30 miles apart.…
Not to be confused with the just-released memoir by Arista Records legend Clive Davis (The Soundtrack of My Life), Don Silver’s slim, paperback memoir covering much of the time he worked with Davis is actually a far more interesting read. Yes, Davis admits to his bisexuality and battles with Kelly Clarkston in his autobiography, but Silver is far more revealing about just how much of a jackass his former boss…
There are very few modern musicians whose life is as well documented as Bob Dylan. There are libraries filled with biographies on the man and his own memoir is split into three separate planned books (Volume One has already been released); the big screen movie of his life I’m Not There, featured everyone from Christian Bale to Cate Blanchett playing the troubadour; and there have been countless concert films and…
Pantera seemed to come out of nowhere in the late 80’s with Cowboys From Hell, a rather apt title summing up these Texas-bred good ole’ boys with a penchant for blistering metal and plenty of booze. Though to be fair, they’d been at it playing and recording since the early 80’s – taking the punk rock DIY path of self-releasing – it just took the music world and the larger…
Though there are certainly many devastatingly sad aspects in the starkly beautiful How to Survive a Plague – the documentary about the early stages of the AIDs epidemic in the U.S. and the origins of ACT Up and TAG – it is also refreshing to see just how more compassionate we have become in this country in comparison. The Oscar-nominated film follows a group of gay men and lesbians…
Anders & Kendall may be a new band, but it’s comprised of a duo of music vets: Anders Parker, a solo artist and also former member of the Indie experimental band Varnaline, and Kendall Meade from Sparklehorse, Mascot and a handful of other groups. Wild Chorus, their debut, is a beautiful, bordering on precious (but not quite there thankfully) collection of nearly a dozen mellow, brushed drum, melody-drenched folk rock…
In a coincidence of sorts, the indie movie Collaborator, about a playwright caught up in his own personal drama actually plays out very much like a play itself, with a keen focus on dialogue helping to ramp up the tension. The lighting in the final, violent scene even comes off like a stage show and you are almost waiting to hear the audience gasp. The small, but very…
It’s not surprising that HBO’s Veep is heavy on DC insider jokes considering it was created by the same team behind the brilliantly funny political movie In the Loop. Thankfully, in a time when approval ratings for politicians are in the basement, it found a big enough audience that the network offered it a second season. The show centers on Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the vice president, quickly realizing she holds…
The wildly successful Storage Wars starts to show some signs of stress with Volume 4: show regular Dave Hester (aka the asshole) was arguing about his contract so he is missing from most of this season as they try out various replacements (none of whom are as interesting as Hester). This season they also start to experiment with horribly obvious product placement (before I open this storage unit, let me…
The Dallas-based six-piece Home By Hovercraft is a family affair, comprised of husband and wife duo Seth Magill (vocals/tuba) and Shawn Magill (piano/vocals /xylophone) and Seth’s sister Abbey Magill (Step Dance) and yes, if they are listing a lone dancer as a band member you get a pretty good idea of what to expect; Somewhat pretentious pop music masquerading as experimental art rock. The band is described as…
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Lincoln Barr’s record collection stopped sometime in the late 70’s after the first couple of Elvis Costello albums came out and Big Star’s Sister Lover hit the racks… and there ain’t anything wrong with that. With his laid back vocal delivery over strong power pop melodies Barr and the rest of the crew in Red Jacket Mine (no idea where that name…
There are very few contemporary writers like Sam Lipsyte who can mine the dark side so deftly for laughs, so thankfully he didn’t take too long to follow up 2010’s stellar The Ask with another book. Three years later, Lipsyte is back with Fun Parts, a collection of short stories very much in the same vein as his earlier efforts. This baker’s dozen of stories covers everything from geeks being…