Category: Features

Posted on: December 25, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

AiRIVAL CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE TOP 20 UNSIGNED ARTISTS BY PUREVOLUME; CATCH THEM ON TOUR WITH CONDITIONS AND LIFE ON REPEAT IN FEB/MARCH

Atlanta-based experimental rock band, iRival was just chosen as one of the Top 20 Unsigned Artists by Purevolume.com! Check it out here: http://www.purevolume.com/top_unsigned_2009. Fusing various aspects of rock and electronics, iRival is road-tested and experienced, having toured with the likes of Family Force 5, Breathe Carolina and Cash Cash and scored an opening stint on 2008’s Rockstar Taste of Chaos. With an average of 2000-5000 plays daily on MySpace and…

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Posted on: December 23, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Jason Yates – Jason Yates (CD)

For the bulk of his career, Jason Yates spent most of his time hidden behind a Hammond B3 organ. But as his self-titled sophomore record shows, he actually belongs in front of the mic. Lying somewhere between jam band rocker and Americana singer songwriter, Yates writes heartfelt rock without skimping on the funk.

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Posted on: December 23, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

In the Loop (DVD)

There have been a slew of movies created this decade with the backdrop of the Iraq war, but most have failed miserably. It seems British director/writer Armando Iannucci may have finally found the right formula.

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Posted on: December 22, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

(500) Days of Summer (Blu-Ray)

(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy that seems to strip away many of the played-out features of the genre while still coming forth as eminently approachable for all audiences. The film itself may be a little challenging to get into at first due to the non-linear path it takes. This means that different scenes from Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer’s (Zooey Deschanel)’s relationship are shown. While there seems…

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Posted on: December 21, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Sid! (DVD)

This doc on Sid Vicious is appropriately brief. Considering the second bassist for The Sex Pistols was barely in the band before the group imploded on their first U.S. tour, the fact that this documentary is 80 minutes long is actually pretty impressive.

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Posted on: December 19, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Jack Johnson – En Concert (CD)

Laidback folk rocker Jack Johnson has been accused of writing the same song over and over again. If nothing else, En Concert, the Hawaiian singer’s live record, goes to show just how diverse he can be. Recorded on his 2008 world tour En Concert is everything a live record should be: expansive (the songs cover all five of his albums) and creative (the arrangements are far from predictable).

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Posted on: December 18, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Sol Skugga – Fairytales and Lullabies (CD)

We here at NeuFutur HQ reviewed Sol Skugga’s last album, “Swimming Without Webbed Toes”, about a year and a half ago (https://neufutur.com/?p=3814). The album itself was a great introduction to Skugga’s unique form of music, but I see “Fairytales and Lullabies” to be an evolutionary shift for the better. “Burn Her” is a very traditional, almost medieval track that benefits greatly from Skugga’s powerful voice. The vocals clash greatest with…

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Posted on: December 15, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Kahlua Coffee Cream (Liqueur)

Anyone that knows me on NeuFutur or at the headquarters knows that I am not a fan of coffee in the slightest. I was going to sit this review out, but the other reviewers urged me to familiarize myself with Kahlua’s latest offering. I am glad that I had the ability to try it, as it is one of the better creamy liqueurs that I have had since we have…

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Posted on: December 12, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Know Your Mushrooms (DVD)

Know Your Mushrooms is directed by Ron Mann, who was the creative mind behind counter-cultural film Grass, along with Go Further and Comic Book Confidential. The film is centered around the magic mushroom – psilocybin – where Mann looks to determine whether there is any merit to the alarmist claims put forth by the government or related groups, or if there could conceivably be some benefit to popping a quarter…

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Posted on: December 12, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Sauza Tequila (Blanco)

Sauza has been a major name in Tequila for a long period of tiem, but I believe that before today, I had never had a chance to check out the spirit until now. This tequila has been through two levels of distilling, ensuring for the smoothest possible experience. The Blanco is as clear as water, while the nose of the Blanco blends well the alcohol bite and familiar tequila body.…

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Posted on: December 10, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Lyle Lovett – Natural Forces (CD)

Lyle Lovett is one of those rare musicians that has earned a critic’s pass of sorts. Thanks to decade’s worth of brilliant songs, he’s allowed to put out a weaker album every now and then. Natural Forces, his latest, is not bad, but again not among his best. Though Lovett has managed to cast a pretty big net beyond the traditional country music fan with past albums, the dozen songs…

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Posted on: December 10, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 2

PLATINUM ROCK BAND FLYLEAF ANNOUNCE TOUR DATES IN SUPPORT OF LATEST RELEASE MEMENTO MORI

Platinum-selling recording group FLYLEAF will embark on a North American tour with rock bands Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace, kicking off January 15th in Peoria, IL. FLYLEAF is touring in support of their latest album, Memento Mori, which was released November 10th on A&M/Octone records. The video for Memento Mori’s first single- the urgent, impassioned “Again,”- has just entered the Elite 8 on MTVU and Fuse. While at radio,”Again”…

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Posted on: December 7, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Eight blackbird treats hometown audiences to new production of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire at Chicago’s Harris Theater on December 8

Eighth blackbird’s third consecutive season in residence at Chicago’s downtown Harris Theater is its most ambitious to date. On December 8, the Grammy-winning sextet presents the first of two concerts in its hometown series: Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 numerological masterpiece Pierrot lunaire, in a new production conceived and directed by Mark DeChiazza that was first shown to audiences at the Ojai Music Festival this summer. DeChiazza is a New York dancer…

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Posted on: December 3, 2009 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

AC/DC – Backtracks (2 CDs/1 DVD)

AC/DC is one of those bands where there is very little fence sitting. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em and I just happen to fall into latter category. The argument that always gets trotted out in discussing AC/DC is that the band sounds the same on just about every song on every album. Well… you’re right. They found a formula very early on that works: big crunchy power chords…

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Posted on: December 3, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Kate Cameron – Conviction (CD)

“Big Star” starts out with a piano line that sticks with listeners long after the track ends, while the vocals here are influenced by strong female singers like Joan Osbourne, Sarah McLachlan, and even Sheryl Crow. The production during “Big Star” is perfect, bringing out the vocals without dwarfing the rest of the instrumentation present. “The Sun” looks to continue the momentum first garnered during “Big Star”, with Cameron’s own…

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Posted on: December 2, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Bruno (Blu-Ray)

Bruno is the latest Sacha Baron Cohen film, and like its older cousin Borat, it really showcases a fish out of water situation. Where the film seems to be more story-oriented than Borat, many of the individuals that I knew that went to see the movie wanted to view exactly what Bruno Gehard got eirself into. The Bluy-Ray edition of the film is a spot-on transfer of the original theatrical…

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Posted on: December 2, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Brinley Gold Coconut Rum (Rum)

Coconut is one of the more familiar flavors that rum has been placed with in my experience, and this is not for nothin’; the taste of the coconut meshes well with the rum, and the resulting spirit exudes a more tropical flavor than say a Cherry rum. The Brinley Gold version of coconut rum is one of the best I have had. First off, the rum with which the coconut…

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Posted on: November 29, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 1

Platinum 7X (Vodka)

Platinum 7X is a vodka that we have seen take over the shelf space of a great many of the liquor stores that we here at NeuFutur have stopped at in the last feqw months. From first blush, what Sazerac has done here is to create a visually distinctive product. Whether it is the deep blue of the bottle or the triangular shape of said bottle, potential purchasers will immediately…

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Posted on: November 28, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Petz Hamsterz Superstarz (Nintendo DS)

The petz series has covered the main animals that players would like to see – primarily cats and dogs – and I see this as a good sign that they are giving smaller critters some face time. This time around, hamsters are given the star treatment, while Ubisoft has stuffed the title full of all the pet-sim goodness that players have learned to expect from this line of games. At…

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Posted on: November 28, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter (Nintendo Wii)

There is something to say about the levels of customization in video games. Where earlier titles (those that I grew up with, released in the late eighties and early nineties), there was little to do to customize – colors may be swapped out, but there was little else players could do to express themselves. Of course, as next-generation consoles fell into obsolescence, newer titles were able to really allow player’s…

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