The Conduit may just upend Goldeneye as my favorite first-person shooter. This Sega-released title is one that truly pushes the Wii to its breaking point, both in regard to the graphics and the audio quality. Furthermore, the control scheme that has been mapped to the Wiimote is nothing short of amazing, establishing an intuitive way to control one’s character. The ability to further customize the control scheme allows players to…
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.
I had no clue before looking at the promotional one-sheet that Luke Donald was a golfer. Terlato Wine has entered into an agreement with Donald to brand a number of their efforts with eir name, and we received a bottle of the 2007 Chardonnay for review. After draining this bottle, we learned two things. First, the heaviness of the glass used to bottle this wine is such that one could…
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.
“Dr Jekyll†is a perfect track. I had not heard of Naree before receiving a copy of their “Jekyll & Hyde†disc for review, but after hearing this song, I am hooked. The style of music that this female-led act puts out is something that moves between alternative rock, pop, and even punk at points. This means that lead singer Naree simultaneously sounds like Avril Lavigne, Natalie Imbruglia, and Hayley…
This is one dark tequila. This is due to the fact that the spirit has been aged in oak barrels in much the same way as whiskey, imbuing all aspects of the Black Medallion with a smoky timbre that sets it off from all other tequilas on the market. The first experience beyond simply seeing the Jose Cuervo Black Medallion will be when one cracks open the bottle; the earthy,…
It has been nearly a decade since Capitol Records released what individuals still hold up as one of the best collections of Sinatra’s music specifically, and of how to create a definitive collection generally. The current leaders at Capitol are trying their hands at capturing lightning in a bottle twice. First off, all the songs that are on “Classic Sinatra II†have been digitally mastered, no matter whether they are…
Don Simon is the first wine that we have gotten for review that has been in a normal, recyclable plastic bottle. It is also Spain’s highest selling wine. The first thing that should be said is that the wine’s flavor has not been modified in the slightest; there is not a plastic or similar flavor profile present in each bottle. Of course, there needs to be some discussion of the…
Ted Nugent has shown eirself to really be a renaissance person, whether it be through eir radio show or through eir voluminous music career. While “Motor City Mayhem†may not show bits and pieces of eir radio show, I feel that Nugent’s tremendous charisma comes through on this release. This is due to the fact that Eagle Rock has crafted one of the best live recordings that I have ever…
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…
While there seems to be some sort of stigma regarding different types of “educational†television content, I have a feeling that the presentation of Frontline’s Poisoned Waters will be enough to keep viewers on the edge of their seats throughout the entirety of the show’s runtime. The release details how exactly the work that was done in the years immediately preceding and following the Clean Water Act have not really…
I have never been a big fan of watching golf, but the games that have been released in the Tiger Woods PGA line have been something special. The amount of specificity that is present in this title, and especially the latest title, are far beyond compare both in regards to golf and general sports titles. Where a number of the different sports titles only make minor changes in-between the different…
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,…
“Misunderstood†showcases a strong female presence on the vocals, allowing for a blending of country, alternative, and pop music. This means that “Misunderstood†is a track that all can appreciate, and it is done with a skill that will ensure that listeners stick with the disc throughout all ten tracks. Valerie Nicole can literally go anywhere with “Naïveâ€, “From The Heartâ€â€™s second track, and settles into a unique sound that…
It may have taken Capcom 15 months to properly modify and translate Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, but the wait that players have had since the title first came out in Japan was well worth it. This Sony PSP title begins by building off of the framework that Monster Hunter Freedom 2 laid down, by introducing countless new monsters, missions, and equipables. Other minor (but still important) changes to the…
Ghostbusters was one of the first films that I remember watching. I have no doubt that this was after its original theatrical release, as I would have been 1 when the film was first released. Regardless of that, it remains as one of my favorite movies of all-time. This Blu-Ray edition shows me exactly how seeing it in its theatrical run must have been like originally; the clarity of the…
The premise for this comic is that three different writers/comic-creators live in the same-numbered apartment, and this commonality is what brought them together to create this comic-zine. The issue itself goes by incredibly fast; the different stories (laid down here by Josh Blair, Pete Borrebach and Noah Van Sciver) are accompanied by radically different art styles.