It took a few albums, but Chapel Hill’s reining alt country heroes Roman Candle have just turned in their iPod killer – not a single track is worth passing over. Oh Tall Tree in the Ear is 11 tracks of beautifully-crafted, well-written country-fused, roots-based indie rock reminiscent of some everyone from classic Big Star to the first couple of Wilco records.
Richard Swift has the sound, voice and influences an artist who’s been around for at least the past three decades. Lyrically, you have to go all the way back to Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman in the 70’s to find an appropriate contemporary and his music picks up where Jeff Lyne left off, boasting a brilliant knack for weaving literate pop sounds that go down smooth.
What a difference two years make. On Trio B.C., the band’s sophomore record, San Antonio’s Girl in a Coma has matured greatly, both musically and lyrically. It’s not that their debut was bad, just very clear that the band grew up listening to The Smiths and not a whole lot else.
Talk about gateway drugs. What started out as a little pot dealing on the side to make ends meet has snowballed into gun smuggling and bringing illegal immigrants though a tunnel connecting the U.S. to Mexico. When Weeds, the quirky Showtime comedy/drama started four years ago, the premise was much tamer: recent widow and mother of two Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) was left with a family to raise and no…
And you thought the drugs were a problem? The success the guys in Aerosmith had in the late 70’s and again in the early/mid 90’s is matched only by their mythic reputation for hovering up mountains of blow in the 70’s and 80’s. In Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top, Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer touches a little on his troubles with drugs, but spends the…
On their second full length, Florida’s Clock Hands Strangle still manages to keep the sound indefinable. Compared to everyone from the Meat Puppets to Death Cab for Cutie, the songs swirl from influence to influence, many times within the same track. The result is not bad, just not terribly original either, sounding a bit like an MP3 player stuck on shuffle. When focused, on tracks like the more rock-oriented “As…
There is something remarkably satisfying about seeing a musician forgo the obvious and easy path and branch out in a new musical direction once their band calls it quits. The results are admittedly more often awkward than successful (Def Leppard as a country band anyone?), but every now and then the gamble pays off. Nightmare of You formed out of the wreckage of Long Island hardcore heroes Movie Life, where…
After a half dozen seasons, Fox’s Family Guy was starting to get a little creaky. There’s only so many times you can trot out the effeminate baby or coked up dog before the umpteenth rerun of a King of the Hill episode starts to look more appealing. Not sure if it was the polarizing nature of the last election cycle or just a changeup of snacks in the writer’s room,…
The show Reaper came along at just the right time. With Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel both dead and gone, there was definitely a void to be filled with a demon-centered goofy fantasy/comedy series.
You’d have to go back pretty far to find a story of wasted musical talent as tragic as Jeff Buckley. The son of folkie Tim Buckley, Jeff was a struggling singer/songwriter playing clubs in New York’s East Village in the 90’swho was finally discovered by Columbia Record execs, who put out his only studio album “Grace.†The record was extremely promising, but took years to find a following. As Buckley…
No idea how you can be gloomy in LA, but something’s bumming out the kids in War Tapes. On The Continental Divide, the band’s first full-length, the group draws strongly from fellow somber rockers like Joy Division, Interpol and Echo and The Bunnymen. The result is a solid effort, if a bit repetitive.
Land of the Lost may have tanked in theaters, but the movies co-star Danny McBride more than makes up for it with the soon-to-be released DVD debut of the HBO series East Bound & Down. With stellar cameos by Will Farrell and Adam McKay (Anchor man, Talladega Nights), Jody Hill (Observe and Report), David Gordon Green (Super Bad) directing, the humor hues closely to the Judd Apatow variety and the…
The Boy Bands for the new millennium may not have the horrible facial hair of their predecessors, and tattoos may have scuffed up the squeaky clean image a bit, but the same paint-by-numbers formula of passionless music and over-earnest lyrics remain a hallmark. Clad in neon t-shirts and hoodies (depending on the weather), The Friday Night Boys is the latest variation in the evolution of Boy Band rock (OK, so…
The only surprising thing about R.E.M’s sophomore full length getting the deluxe double disc treatment is that it took so long. Long considered one of the best efforts from one of the most influential bands to come out of the 80’s, the rerelease come 25 years after it was first issued. A college radio station staple then and even now, “Reckoning†finds the band gaining confidence. The lyrics are a…
It’s clear just a few pages into it, that Poisoned Heart, Vera Ramone King’s memoir of her time with Ramone’s bassist Dee Dee, was not easy to write. The book comes off as part therapy, part twisted love letter to the clearly disturbed rocker. King, who met and fell in love with the punk rocker in 1977, just before the band helped introduce punk rock to the world. Her relationship…
Some bands just know how to leave you wanting more. It’s been five very long years since Nashville-based psychedelic indie rockers The Features released their major label debut, the grossly underrated “Exhibit Aâ€. The band is finally back with the second act, and it was well worth the wait. “Some Kind of Salvation†is brimming with the same combination of sunny harmonies, 60’s psychedelic organ and Motown horns that made…
Like wearing a cowboy hat with a Sex Pistols t-shirt, the Von Ehrics have no problem mixing dirty country with a little punk rock. The Dallas-based trio thankfully sounds like nothing else being played right now. On Loaded, their third effort and first for Wisconsin indie Crustacean Records, the band is at their best so far in their admittedly short career. Loud, fast guitars and drums serve as the perfect…
After six seasons, you know where you stand with the often polarizing duo of Penn & Teller and their sacred cow tipping Showtime series Bull Shit! For those easily offended and potentially horrified for the group’s crass, profanity-laced, straight-to-the-point documentaries… well change the channel. For those with an open mind however, the series is entertainingly addictive and season six, now on DVD, is no different.
It would be easy to write off Great White as just another way past its prime hair metal band trying desperately to relive the 80’s. But Great White, like Tesla and a handful of others who got caught up in the atrocious metal scene 20 years ago, had actual talent and some great songs to back up their bluster.
The premise is funny enough that it’s amazing someone hasn’t thought about committing it to film before. A struggling metal band at night plays kid’s parties during the day to pay the bills. The best part about it is that it’s based on a real band. IFC picked up this original and surprisingly addictive half-hour TV series.
