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…
“Revelation on the Radio” is an absolute epic track in the vein of Styx or Queens of the Stone Age. While rooted firmly in the rock genre, listeners can hear equal amounts of metal (Fear Factory) and even punk (Jello Biafra) present in Steele’s first cut. “Via Satellite” provides listeners with a tremendous amount of energy, as Steele’s vocals drive into listeners with all of the allure of a Tubronegro…
The two-man Black Metal outfit known as HAT (Norwegian for Hatred) are releasing the follow-up to last year’s acclaimed The Demise Of Mankind this month on Abyss Records. Entitled Vortex Of Death, the band’s second full-length release promises to deliver the same razor-sharp aural nihilism as its predecessor. Visit www.officialabyssrecords.com for HAT music and merchandise.
A little while back, maybe a month or so, north east Ohio was hit by it’s second wave of Snowmagedon. During that I time, I had been undergoing talks with a nice woman from ZeroChroma’s media department. We had been working on getting me a sample iPad case to test out and do a review for it. I eagerly waited with much anticipation to see what this new case would…
It takes a lot to get me to want to work out some mornings. While I can usually get out to the gym and turn in a pretty solid workout, there needs to be that little added bit to really allow me to turn in intense workouts. All American EFX understands this, and has created a pre-workout supplement called K-OTIC. K-OTIC is a perfect storm of punch and low-price; the…
At a smidge under $100 (currently on sale at BrooksRunning.com ), the Brooks Launch comes forward with a tremendous amount of features at a cheap price. The lightness of the shoes is of primary importance, meaning that runners with these shoes are not saddled with clunky or otherwise badly-designed shoes. Related to the weight has to be the balance in the shoe’s design. The Brooks Launch, despite having a much…
Since hurricane Katrina ravaged the gulf coast in late August of 2005, Steven Stubblefield has been working on a new Starlings, TN record. “That storm was like a bad acid trip,” Stubblefield says. “It lasted as nearly as long too. It was eight hours of chaos that left years destruction in its wake.” With more than $10,000 worth of damage to his home from Katrina, Stubblefield spent the next three…
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…
The All-American Rejects and Magic Bullet Records have teamed up to issue 10 very special copies of the AAR album “When the World Comes Down” with all proceeds benefitting Charity: Water! This organization works to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of the planet with the greatest need. It’s surprising to learn that one in eight people on earth currently do not have access to clean, safe drinking water,…
You may (or may not) notice the catalog number on this is Sheath016, while our most recent release was actually Sheath025. Well, here’s the story behind this release: the catalog number for this one was actually assigned about two years ago, when we were beginning work on the early-mid teen catalog numbers. The original band that was supposed to be on this 7″ needed a second band to do a…
Many critics have opined that Lloyd’s “New Quartet”, with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland may be the best of all his groups. The quartet’s previous release in this line-up, the live-recorded Rabo de Nube, met with across-the-board approval and was voted #1 album of the year in both the Critics and Readers Polls of JazzTimes. The Quartet has toured extensively since the September release of Mirror both in…
Taptivate recently decided to get into the social network scene with their recent release, “Friends.” Taptivate made a bold claim, to integrate the four corners of the social networking world, and make it easier to keep up with your friends from wherever their data hails. At first I was very interested in this App, but then I realized something very crucial; I don’t have that many friends. Oh well. The…
Redux, by its definition, is a thing that gets brought back, or experiences a resurgence, today on the short list is a review of an I’ve reviewed before, but not exactly. Tell you what I mean: awesome note, by Brid, came out for the iPhone quite some time ago, and I looked out unto the AppSphere, and found that it was good. Now I’m coming off like I think I’m…
Deborah Voigt has been wowing critics and fans alike with her turn as Puccini’s quintessential New World heroine in the Metropolitan Opera’s centenary staging of La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). The New Year soon brings another anniversary production, when Voigt embodies Puccini’s Gold Rush girl again at Lyric Opera of Chicago (Jan 22 – Feb 21). Of a December Met performance as the pistol-packing, poker-playing…
Venezuelan blackened death metal act NOCTIS IMPERIUM have recently released a video for the song “Unus In Nihil” from their Abyss Records debut Nihil. Nihil was released in August of 2010 and is currently available through Abyss Records and features Nick Barker (ex-DIMMU BORGIR, ex-CRADLE OF FILTH, et al.) on drums. For more information, please visit: www.myspace.com/noctisimperium or www.officialabyssrecords.com “Unus In Nihil” video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThvJAp1PaqE
A month or so ago I was also asked to review Ponk, a puzzle game that has some roots in common with the likes of tetris, Dr. Mario, and bust-a-move. The game is a simple and addictive one. The game has a container into which different colored orbs fall, or if you use the now outdated Halloween theme, they could look like cool emoticon balls. The name of the game…
Tap Disc Review By Jesse Hayges Legal Radiation gave me a code to review their title “Tap Disc” a couple months ago, and I’ve been playing it heavily since I received it, but due to the nature of being a student, school work become more important than reviews. For this I apologize, however, much to my delight, after a recent update, a lot of my previous issues with the game…
Gun Star Heroes Review By Jesse Hayges Sega has re-released the classic genesis game Gun Star Heroes for the iOS platform. This game is a game a few friends of mine were so excited to see it appear in the Wii downloadable games center. They loved this game, and after playing it for a few weeks, I can see why. In this classic side scrolling shooter, we see some of…
As an avid fan of both Apple, and the iPhone/iPad, I feel honored to report something shocking. I would first like to take moment and express some thoughts. I am a fan of gaming on the iPhone, and now gaming on the iPad, and some recent games being a shining example of what a gaming company can really do with the iOS platform, I feel that the iOS platform is…