I finally realized I was addicted to realty programming about 10 minutes in the first episode of Ice Road Truckers. The concept for this History channel show is fairly simple: Take a handful of truck drivers, through them up in frozen Alaska and train cameras on them as they haul massive loads up steep mountains with narrow, snow clogged roads and in some very frightening cases, over frozen lakes. The…
Having shed two members since their last release, Boston indie band Aloud is down to a duo, but don’t assume that means a sparse sound. Far from it. Down to members Jennifer de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain, both who share vocal and guitar duties (and occasionally pick up the bass or play piano or glockenspiel), the band turns in their strongest effort yet with Exile, their third release. Put…
By the time the 14th season of E.R. hit the air, the show had long since stopped being water cooler fodder at work the next day, which is a shame because the show had finally hit a comfortable groove. ER proved years ago that it’s not always the actors that make the show. With the exception of maybe Law & Order, no other drama managed to be as successful as…
The plot behind The Winning Season goes all the way back to The Bad News Bears: one-time star athlete, now a loser doing menial jobs is brought in to coach a team of misfits and manages to turn their luck around. Though thanks to stellar casting and solid acting from the leads, The Winning Season manages to overcome all the baggage it’s been saddled with and the result is a…
Only someone as side-splitting funny as Ricky Gervais could successfully take a podcast – a purely audible phenomenon – and take it seamlessly to TV. The HBO show takes the comic’s wildly successful podcasts – which set records for the amount of downloads it racked up in 2007 – and brings them to life via Hanna Barbera-style cartoons. The show revolves around Gervais, his longtime collaborator Stephen Merchant (who helped…
Let me state up front that this review is not meant to be ironic in anyway and while sarcasm is the major form of communication for anyone between 12 and 25, I’m in my late 30’s so am (almost) capable of going more than 15 minutes without a single snarky retort. OK, I’m just as cynical as your average tween, but I’ve at least lived long enough to justify the…
Hard to believe, but 1971 was not a good year for Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, three of the most influential rockers to come out of that decade. The doc Sacred Triangle does a decent job of telling the story of how the trio of rockers nearly fizzled out at the beginning of the decade and how all managed to collaborate in various forms leading to great (and…
Humorist David Sedaris manages to fill in the animal characters in his latest collection of short stories with more color and facets than many fiction writers devote to their human characters. Despite being a series of short stories being told by animals, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is actually pretty much what you’ve come to expect from Sedaris, via his New Yorker essays, NPR stories and collection of autobiographical writings. Filled with…
You’d be forgiven if you have never heard of The Mommyheads. A definitive example of a cult band, the San Francisco, by way of New York, indie band had a handful of small label releases throughout the 90’s, one shot at the majors with a Geffen release, then disbanded shortly after in 1998. During their time together, the band did manage to collect a slew of positive reviews from critics…
For those about to rock… might want to pick up this bio/coffee table book on AC/DC. There have been few rock bands as polarizing as AC/DC that have managed to stay relevant across three decades. Call them juvenile, sophomoric, three-chord rock stars or see them as one of the last few torch barriers for unpretentious rock, but there is no denying that Australia’s biggest musical export knows how to write…
To commemorate what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday there was a slew of re-releases (including updated versions of his solo records) and box sets last month. Among the barrage of remembrances to honor the former Beatles is the little-talked about documentary LennoNYC. The doc, just released on DVD, is a fascinating look at Lennon’s post Beatle life when he left behind his native England for New York in…
Prior to Starstruck, I think it’s safe to assume there had never been so much in depth research put into why Paris Hilton managed to become frighteningly famous when Tara Reed didn’t. On the surface they could almost be doppelgangers: blonde-haired party girls with extremely questionable talent, both thrust into the spotlight. But while Hilton has managed to thrive, building a mini-empire of realty shows and perfume, Reed has become…
I have always viewed remixes as an unnecessary and often cynical move by record labels to milk the music –buying public one more time, buying slightly reworked – and in most cases weaker versions of songs they already own. I view it akin to George Lucas tossing out a new edition of Star Wars DVDs every couple of years.
For those Dylan fans who have never quite recovered from the musician temporarily putting down his acoustic guitar to plug into an amp at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, The Witmark Demos, the latest in Dylan’s stellar Bootleg Series, is a godsend. Forty-seven songs spread out over two CDs, featuring the artist formerly known as Robert Zimmerman accompanied only by acoustic guitar, and occasionally harmonica and piano, this collection…
Those still mourning the death of the true indie film need only look to Edward Burns’ latest effort to realize the indie spirit is still alive and kicking.
Even if you’ve never picked up a guitar, you can’t help but admire the pictures in Dave Hunter’s latest book. This coffee table-sized book takes a look at some of the most storied guitars in Rock, Country and Blues, from the stat Jimi Hendrix famously burned on stage to Springsteen’s classic Fender Telecaster (as seen on the covers of several of his albums including Born to Run, Human Touch and…
Anglophiles and fans of the Yakety Sax rejoice: A&E Home Video has just released the DVD megaset you have been waiting. Benny Hill, The Complete Megaset, is 58 episodes, parceled out over 18 DVDs. This hilarious, often raunchy set covers two decades of the Benny Hill show from 1969 to 1989. Every single episode, including some skits that never aired in the U.S. is crammed into this box set. Aired…
It may actually be the most important question you ever answer. Forget where you stand on politics, religion, abortion… gun to your head, who do you choose, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones? The answer pretty much defines who you are: Are you an outwardly rebellious badass with attitude to spare (The Stones) or are you the seemingly good guy (or girl), accessible to all, who is actually a rebellious…
Looking for Eric, the British indie import has been billed as everything from “The Next Full Monty” to “The Next Waking Ned Devine,” which is a bit unfortunate. Sure all three are feel good features set in Europe, but the similarities end pretty much there.
The Dead Boys have always been the Rodney Dangerfield of punk rock. They had the chops, but never really got the respect or credit they deserved for their role serving on the front lines of the New York punk scene in the late 70’s. They shared stages, groupies and drugs with The Ramones, but never quite got the amount of fame that their buddies achieved.