When a band member goes solo, there is typically some semblance of their original act present in the solo album. Brian Olive just spent a few years in The Greenhornes and Soledad Brothers, and the music that issues forth on “Two of Everything” is considerably different from either of those acts. In fact, there is a marked departure from any of Olive’s previous bands in the opening strains of “Left…
If Queen were to make their debut now, instead of 1973 when they released their eponymous debut, it’s very likely they’d be considered a novelty band, and I’m not even talking about Freddy Mercury’s skin tight cat suits or Brian May’s getting closer to God afro as reasons why. The songs alone, which have proven not only to be fantastic examples of what can be accomplished with hard driving drums…
Iron Maiden has been one of my favorite metal bands for a long time now. The first concert that I ever attended was an Iron Maiden show, and a great number of the tracks contained on “From Fear to Eternity” are their strongest cuts. This 23 track greatest hits compilation could easy have another two or three discs added without any decrease in quality, but Universal has done a tremendous…
The Accel Recovery Bar is integral for anyone that is looking for a healthy snack, recovery after a workout, or for a way to easily increase their health. There are three different types of carbohydrates that will restore fuel to the muscles, while there are a few amino acids present that will allow for muscles to be built up faster and bigger than before. Finally, the presence of anitioxidants in…
It’s been fifteen or more years since the first time I tried to build a website. Back then, there was only three ways to make your website; Learn HTML, pay someone to do it, or to use a tool provided by a web hosting site like Angel-fire or Homestead. The last of those options would work, but it wasn’t always secure, options were limited, and themes were either pitifully slim,…
There is a considerable amount of variation when it comes to pre-workout supplements. While each of them will get you amped due to the presence of caffeine, it takes a good supplement to really do everything that any company promises. To that end, I feel that the GAT Jet Fuse pre-workout is perhaps the best pre-workout supplement that I have tried.
“Lucky You” is an interesting pop track that ties together a current and contemporary sound with the synth-pop of the eighties along with the female singers of the mid-sixties. By bringing back these disparate styles and bundling them up with a bold new approach, what results in the Theory of Tides EP is nothing less than revolutionary. “Stay Away” is my favorite track on this album, as it provides an…
If By Yes breaks conventions. The music that is contained on “Salt on Sea Glass” bounces around considerably, from indie rock to twee to jazz, avant-garde, and a whole host of other different approaches. This is not too surprising, giving the pedigree that the quartet possess. With stints in That Dog and Cibo Matto, If By Yes are mature and have the energy to create an album that is wholly…
Despite the disparity of the material that is covered during Wartorn 1861-2010, the film unites the different actions through the sheer effect that they have on the people that fought them. While the idea of post-traumatic stress disorder is a relatively new one, the symptom has been present in the warrior’s mind throughout the time period covered by Jon Alpert here. The most interesting information obtained in this documentary has…
A Matador’s Mistress is a film set in 1940s Spain, where the love between Manolete (a famous bullfighter, played by Adrian Brody) and Lupe Sino (an actress with a fiery political streak, played by Penelope Cruz) is whipped up into a tremendous scandal. The film is important also in that it was actually finished in 2005, but the political content of the title made it a difficult commodity to successfully…
With the sheer amount of films that are being re-released onto the Blu-Ray format, I feel that there is a good chance that a number of them will be completely missed. While there is a good reason for this for some films, I content that Lorber’s re-release of a number of films from the Sophia Loren vaults should be viewed. This collection (which includes Sunflower, Marriage Italian Style, and Yesterday,…
Fans of Broadway may know O’Hara’s work in the oughts, with stints taken in Jekyll & Hyde, Dracula The Musical, and South Pacific. “Always” is only O’Hara’s second album, the first after eir 2008 debut, “Wonder in the World”. “Always” starts off with “What More Do I Need?”, a track that showcases the warmth and love that O’Hara brings to each of the disc’s compositions. After this “how do you…
The Live At Birdland release captures two days worth of performances by a group consisting of Konitz (alto saxophone), Mehldau (piano), Haden (double-bass) and Motian (drums). It is an important album as it shows the ease in which a talented group can move between a studio and a live setting, with each of the tracks here easily working in either context.
You’d be excused for thinking Shot in the Dark, the new HBO doc from Entourage’s Adrian Grenier, was little more than a predictably sappy tear jerker aimed at the Lifetime crowd. That’s certainly what I was expecting, so I was pleasantly surprised when the film turned out to be a sincere look at Grenier simply searching for answers about the estranged father he grew up without. Out on DVD just…
It is very rare to see a new alcohol product on the market that looks so boldly to defy conention. Where it is pretty easy to see the general types of spirits placed alongside a mish-mash of “liqueurs”, Courvoisier has made something on the success level of a Nuvo. For those that have not had a chance to sample Courvoiser Rose, it is a linking of red wine with the…
Few bands are able to come up with a coherent and mature sound with their second album. King’s Highway has been able to do just that with their “The Line”. While the style of music that they create here is rich in tradition and draws deeply on Southern rock tradition, there is a very unique sound that is furthered with each of the album’s tracks.
Killer Yacht Party is an absolutely absurd flick, but that is not a bad thing. Where a great deal of horror movies end up taking themselves too seriously, Killer Yacht Party is able to intersperse humor with horror in a highseas whodunit. The film starts off innocently, with a party being held on a yacht. As things begin to reach a fever pitch, deaths start occurring. Keeping things varied, the…
Few people actually know, but the workout process is tremendously stressful on one’s body. It is not typically stressful to anyone that properly supplements, but increasing muscle size boils down to tearing individual muscle fibers up each time one runs, pumps iron, or does anything vaguely strenuous. To ensure that the recovery process goes faster, Amino Recovery provides a host of different amino acids which then facilitate the recovery process.…
There have been a tremendous number of different pieces, works, and other films done since the advent of television that looks to provide a decent amount of coverage of America’s Civil War. However, due to time restrictions or ideological leanings of the work’s creator, a great many of these collections have been limited in one sense or another. Questar has created a DVD set that looks to solve a great…
It seems to be that the energy shots are the new big thing when it comes to individuals trying to gain and maintain energy. Where much of the use of these energy shots are for those that are not trying to increase their fitness, I contend that there are serious benefits gained by taking energy shots for those that have an active fitness regimen. However, there is substantial variation in…