When it first aired in 2002-2003, it was pretty obvious the sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe was never going to make it. It was original, there was no laugh track and it was on Fox, the temporary home to shows like Arrested Development and The Tick (a network gifted with spotting hilarious sitcoms, putting them on the air just long enough to hook people and then giving them the…
Even diehard Chris Cornell fans have to admit the sound of the former Soundgarden front man backed by Timbaland’s electronic beats is a tad bit disconcerting. Now imagine an entire album of this Cornell hip hop hybrid.
Five minutes into Ricky Gervais’ latest stand-up special he launches into a series of jokes about cancer. It’s at that point you realize that the heir to the late George Carlin’s brilliantly frank comedy has been found. Over the course of just over an hour, Gervais tackles everything from obesity (which is decidedly funny coming from the portly British comic) to the top 10 alternatives to risky gay sex (compliments…
Let the Pitchfork reading hipsters disagree, but Radiohead’s three best releases came out in the early to late 90’s, before the band became obsessed with synth-driven experimental songs. It’s satisfying then that Capitol chose to put out Special Collectors Editions of Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer.
Twelve years into it, South Park still manages to be surprisingly fresh. Any argument against that statement is squelched with the third episode into this collection, “Major Boobage,†an homage to the classic stoner cartoon Heavy Metal thanks to cat urine. Sure the cartoons are still crudely drawn and the jokes even cruder, but let’s be honest you either think fourth graders saying “fuck†is funny or you don’t.
Writing a great rock novel is a whole lot harder than it sounds. There have been countless attempts over the years and the result is usually a collection of boring tour urban legends and rejected VH1 Behind the Music scripts. It’s a pretty big feat then that both Michael Shilling and Jason Buhrmester have managed to turn in solid rock stories just months apart from each other. Shilling’s Rock Bottom…
I’ve never really understood the fascination with concert DVDs. They always seemed to be a bit like dry humping to me – not even close to the real thing. The whole point of a going to a show is the experience: sweating your ass off, getting beer spilled on you, leaving the club with ringing ears and your voice shot. Thankfully, NOFX’s latest video tour diary – originally aired on…
One look at the band photo and it’s easy to dismiss the Dallas-based five piece Artist Vs Poet as little more than hoodie-sporting, auto-tune dependent Millennials with influences that don’t go deeper than last year’s Hot Topic best-sellers. A rash, slightly unfair judgment call, but pretty damn accurate if their 5-song EP is any indication to what the future holds. Sure there’s nothing flat out offensive about the music, aside…
It’s hard to overplay the importance of 1989’s Paul’s Boutique to the success of the Beastie Boys. The follow up to the band’s sophomoric, party album Licensed to Ill, the Dust Brother produced Paul’s Boutique took the band from novelty white rappers to a legitimate musical talent, pushing the boundaries of a still new genre at the time. There is still plenty of humor, just much less chauvinistic posturing with…
It’s a little surprising that the religious right, usually front and center, picket signs and bull horns in hand at any movie even vaguely touching on Christianity, never bothered to turn out in force to picket Bill Maher’s wickedly funny, and powerful documentary on religion. Judging by the early rumblings against the soon-to-be-released sequel to the Da Vinci Code, it can’t be that they have finally learned that this is…
Long Island’s Danny Rocco aims pretty high with his debut The Future is Now, going beyond the staid and routine songs his peers have been churning out. Unfortunately he doesn’t always reach the intended heights. The acoustic strumming, singer songwriter (backed by the band End the Stars) starts the album of with the strongly original, addictive title track “The Future is Now,†but the rest of the album tries, and…
At 75 and with a legacy as a national musical treasure already firmly cemented, you’d think Willie Nelson would at least take a little time off to relax. On average, the prolific cowboy churns out at least two or three releases a year. This year looks to be no different.
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has somehow stumbled on that rare combination of a fantastically gripping story, the perfect cast and excellent writing. Not since The Sopranos have all of the elements for a truly great TV drama series come together so quickly. The series centers around Walter (played by Bryan Cranston), a brilliant scientist, now stuck teaching chemistry to apathetic high schoolers in Albuquerque and worrying about day-to-day bills.
Once you get past the fact that Roberto Escobar sees his brother more as a Columbian Robin Hood rather than one of the most barbaric, nefarious drug lords… well, ever, The Accountant’s Story is actually a pretty fascinating read that’s incredibly difficult to put down once you’ve started reading.
It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for the music industry crying about low CDs sales, when a solid band like Kaline is churning out records on its own, while stale, paint-by-numbers groups simply ape the sound of mediocre bands that came before them and are rewarded with record label deals.
Much like the first season of Arrested Development, HBO’s cult comedy Summer Heights High is wildly cherished by those few lucky enough to have somehow stumbled across it, meanwhile try and describe the premise to anyone unaware of the show and chances are the blank stare will remind of just how small that cult surrounding the show actually is right now.
An anthology about relationships written by guys sounds about as appealing as…well talking about relationships with guys. But thanks to a stellar list of authors – heavy on comedians like Jon Stewart, Patton Oswalt, Stephen Colbert and Will Forte – and the comedy-prone topic of getting dumped, makes the task that much more compelling. The essays are offered as lessons of sorts, far from practical, but extremely funny nonetheless.
Listening to Death Cab for Cutie’s first proper release, 1998’s Something About Airplanes, there is little indication that the band would someday be headlining major festivals, churning our records for a major label and pretty much adding a touch of indie cred and respectability to mainstream radio stations. It’s not that the songs are not good, in fact for the most part they are just as beautiful as the latter…
Judging from the news coverage, you’d think Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Buttons were the only two movies nominated for Oscars this year. While those two movies have been sharing all the ink, thanks to genre hybrids and amazing special effects, the subtly stellar and so far grossly underrated Frozen River manages to get by solely on fantastic acting and a strong character driven storyline.
Mining influences as varied as the Beatles (before they discovered LSD and meditation), Buddy Holly and power poppers like Milk N’ Cookies, Central Pennsylvania’s The Tamboureens sound like just about nothing being released today… and that’s a very good thing.
