You gotta love an indie band that doesn’t try to coat their pop songs in faux hipster swagger. Seattle’s Boat – unlike many of their trendy indie brethren in the Pacific Northwest – play straight up pop rock and the result is fantastic. On Setting the Paces, their third full length, the group delivers 14 tracks that would make Cheap Trick put down their double-necked guitars and start taking notes.…
If you needed any further proof that TV executives are little more than sadistic puppet masters who like little more than to tease us with what might have been, look at the career of Andy Richter. After leaving Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Richter made the bizarre, but extremely funny Andy Richter Controls the Universe. The show was smart and original, so obviously it was cancelled after one season.
When The Format announced they were splitting up last year after their epically brilliant, but tragically underrated concept record Dog Problems, it seemed like a horrible waste of talent. Dog Problems, produced by Red Kross’ Steven McDonald with musical arrangements by Jellyfish’s Roger Manning, Jr., was pop rock perfection from start to finish; one of the best power pop records put out in 2007. Taking inspiration from XTC and ELO,…
It’s easy to forget how relevant Willie Nelson still remains, nearly 50 years after releasing his first record. On Lost Highway, his greatest hits collection from the label of the same name, Nelson, turns in 17 already classic country songs. Tunes like “Maria (Shut Up and Kiss Me),†“Back to Earth†and his cover of the reggae classic “The Harder They Come†just go to illustrate how relevant he still…
John Ortved’s carefully researched and entertaining behind the scenes look at one of the most beloved TV series works primarily because the author is such a big fan of The Simpsons. How do you know he has a deep appreciation for The Simpsons? He is willing to admit that the show is not nearly as good as it once was. Simply put, he knows it is cable of being better.
Oh, hyper aggressive hybrid of metal/punk band, do you ever tire of writing the same song over and over again? If you’re Mower, I guess so. Four albums into it, and the Mohawk sportin’ (two members at least), tattooed members of the San Diego hard rock band are releasing their grip on that template a bit. Sure, the themes of partying and violence are still front and center, but Make…
Any Otis Redding fan – big or small – already has most if not all of the songs collected on this best of album. Regardless, it’s a decent glimpse into Redding’s brief but brilliant career, highlighting songs like “Respect,†“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long†and “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,†along with a great cover of the Stones’ “Satisfactionâ€.
When CBS first rolled out Eleventh Hour, their latest Jerry Bruckheimer-produced TV series last year, critics were quick to compare it to X Files. You had the mysterious, often freakish occurrences, the attractive, yet uptight female FBI agent pared with an equally attractive male partner plus plenty of ominous music. Though an easy comparison, it was a little off base.
It’s a bit surprising Different Light, the 2007 sophomore release from Sherwood didn’t help make the California band a household name. With their Pet Sounds-era harmonies and a sound the evoked everyone from the Beatles to ELO, the album was pretty damn close pop rock perfection. Their latest, Qu is almost as good. It’s a bit cliché to talk about a maturing sound in record reviews, but it’s true with…
There’s no denying that New York and Los Angeles get all the good press. When punk music finally made its way to the U.S. in the late 70’s, both coasts were claiming the title as punk rock capitals – with New York citing The Ramones and Los Angeles touting X. Though hundreds of miles away from both cities, Chicago – ever the modest mid westerner – was quietly hosting it’s…
If any 90’s band warranted the anthology treatment it’s Morphine. It took a decade, but Rhino has given the Boston-based “low rock†band the treatment and the result is a wildly impressive look at band’s output. The refreshingly original band – name one other alt rock band from that era that sounded so good with a saxophone – ended suddenly in 1999 when singer Mark Sandman died of a heart…
On his second release, Belly of the Lion, Texas native David Wingo – under the moniker Ola Podrida – delivers not quite a dozen beautifully written, sweeping tracks that evoke the desolate landscape captured on the album’s cover. Known best as a music composer behind movies like George Washington and All the Real Girls, it’s not surprising that Belly of the Lion sounds a bit like a movie score. Bringing…
Anyone who writes off Nip/Tuck as “too much†or “unbelievable†clearly stopped watching the wildly entertaining series long ago. Once those tepid viewers were scared off, the rest of us were free to enjoy the basic cable soap in peace in all its outrageousness. The beautiful thing about Nip/Tuck – about to start its sixth season – is the manner in which it manages to top it’s already way over…
Chicago folk rocker Michael McDermott has been compared to everyone from Springsteen to Dylan over past 18 years that he’s been bumming around small clubs across the country.
It took 19 years and seven albums, but The Casualties – one of the few bastions of classic, aggressive punk rock – have released their most accessible and arguably best record to date. The 14 tracks that make up We Are All We Have are still as confrontational as the band’s earlier work and will still satisfy most of the diehards, but everything from the guitars to the vocals seem…
David Cross is getting a little tired of carrying around the hipster cross. Worshipped for co-creating/starring in Mr. Show and his brilliant work with Arrested Development, Cross also happens to be one of the funniest controversial stand ups working today (controversial meaning he does more than jokes about airline peanuts).
Written as a love letter to his Brooklyn neighborhood, The Gowanus Yacht Club was a bit of an experiment for Porter Block. For his fourth record, the pop rocker sought the help of 11 diverse song writers to collaborate on the record.
There is no reason that The Big Bang Theory should be as funny as it is. It has all the markings of a traditional, run-of-the-mill sitcom: wacky characters, the hot neighbor, the laugh track. It also doesn’t help that the series was created by Chuck Lore, who forced the groan-inducing Two and a Half Men on the world.
You’d think the joke would be wearing a little thin after two seasons, but Flight of the Conchords – HBO’s take on New Zealand folksters/comics Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement – still comes off surprisingly fresh.
Chances are, unless you were part of the early 90’s music scene in North Carolina, you have no idea who Michael Plumides, Jr. is. That doesn’t make his memoir Kill the Music any less interesting. The book is Plumides’ reflections on the late 80’s and early 90’s when he worked in South Carolina as a deejay at an influential college radio station and eventually moved on to become the owner…
