[Above: Feist and Stephen Colbert]
Stephen Colbert’s new Christmas special, The Greatest Gift of All!, is set up Andy Williams-style. Our host, in his eccentric, self-aggrandizing Colbert Nation character, wears the classic red turtle-neck/ivory cable-nit sweater combo. He’s trapped in a cabin by the threat of a grizzly bear lurking outside the door, yet somehow a slew of famous musicians manage to drop by his abode unscathed. Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, John Legend, Feist, Elvis Costello and Jon Stewart sing-a-long in a series of mostly uninspired Yuletide tunes.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
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Release Date: Nov. 21
Directors: Byron Howard and Chris Williams
Writers: Williams and Dan Fogelman
Art Director: Paul A. Felix
Starring (voices):
John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, Greg Germann
Studio/Run Time: Walt Disney, 96 mins.
Animated charmer falls into awkward place
The era of family animation spiked with irony and winking asides for adults in the audience arrived with the CG format,
and together the new traditions have come to dominate what was once a
conservative standby in Hollywood. DreamWorks briefly co-opted Disney’s
habitual dominance of the format with the Shrek franchise, but Disney decisively reclaimed it with its fateful (and bluntly expensive) acquisition of Pixar in 2006.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, Reviews, bolt, john travolta, miley cyrus, movie review, walt disney | No Comments »
Creedence Clearwater Revival (79)
Bayou Country (94)
Green River (96)
Willy and the Poor Boys (87)
Cosmo’s Factory (90)
Pendulum (68)
Four decades later, CCR’s classic albums sip like the smoothest of ’shine
Creedence Clearwater Revival was a commercial juggernaut, with nine Top 10 hits between 1969-71, even outselling The Beatles in 1969. Although encamped right across the bay from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, CCR never injected the slightest hint of peace, love and understanding into its canon. The band had a different inspiration. The strange subterranean world of an imagined South—twisted, eerie and nefarious—inflamed John Fogerty’s mind with images of voodoo ceremonies under gnarled trees dripping with Spanish moss and portent. A fan of horror flicks and Edgar Allan Poe, he urged his band to cover Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You,” penned the dirge freakout “Gloomy,” and put a brittle bite into Dale Hawkins’ “Susie Q,” adding dirty, side-winding guitar that slithered into Fogerty’s heart of darkness for an extended jam.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Music, Music, Reviews, bayou country, cosmo's factory, creedence clearwater revival, green river, issue 49, pendulum, willy and the poor boys | No Comments »
It’s hard to argue with someone who is devoted to spreading the good word, as Chozen Vesselz does with its own version of spiritual hip hop music. It wasn’t possible to find the group and its tunes at chosenvesselz.com (coming soon, according to the MySpace information).
We were able to listen to some samples from the [...]
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
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Caustic Casanova is a power trio based in Williamsburg, Virginia - Michael Wollitz: guitar, keyboard, and vocals; Francis Beringer: bass, harmonica, and vocals; Stefanie Zaenker: drums and vocals. I suppose it’s safe to say they are still a power trio and working band, since their Web site does show one playing date, October 31, 2008. [...]
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
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Nashville singer/songwriter pens her own hymns
Three years ago, Sandra McCracken released The Builder And the Architect, a collection of reworked traditional hymns that remains one of the strongest albums in her near-decade-long career. Her latest, Red Balloon, only sounds like a collection of hymns. These McCracken originals move gracefully and dramatically, exploring spiritual matters with wide-eyed inquisitiveness. At times, her lyrics veer toward the saccharine, but her soft-as-down voice—equal parts Emmylou Harris, Dusty Springfield and Eva Cassidy—makes “Guardian” and “Lock And Key” feel like comfort food rather than Hallmark sap. Red Balloon sounds best when McCracken and collaborator/husband Derek Webb are most adventurous: Standout “Saturn’s Fields” marries cosmic imagery to fluttery backing vocals and cascading keyboards that sound more shoegazer than stargazer. Superfluous programmed beats rumble through most of these songs, threatening to carbon-date Red Balloon circa 1994, but eventually these tacked-on rhythms become part of the album’s larger tapestry, complementing rather than overpowering McCracken’s elegant vocals.
Listen to tracks from Red Balloon on Sandra McCracken’s MySpace page.
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Music, Music, Reviews, issue 48, red balloon, sandra mccracken, towhee | No Comments »
In conventional Spreadhead fashion, the floor was packed with legions of drunken frat-heads and drug-addled neo-hippies eagerly awaiting the rare small-theater appearance by the band.
Posted on November 19th, 2008 by admin
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Music geeks create something utterly original
Sufjan Stevens propped open the door to the marching-band practice room earlier this decade, and since then several of his band-camp compatriots have strutted out onto the wider field of popular music. Chicago septet Anathallo is at the head of this geeky class, and the band upholds its reputation on sophomore album Canopy Glow.
Posted on November 19th, 2008 by admin
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Getting back in the van
From Wire to the Pixies to My Bloody Valentine, post-punk bands are hard to kill. Now, on the occasion of its third album (and first in 15 years), From Now to OK, you can add underappreciated New York trio Springhouse to the list of survivors. With its re-emergence, the band asserts its rightful place in the chain of U.K.-inspired, melancholy guitar pop, stretching from Big Star to The Shins. Guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Mitch Friedland avoids the processed acoustic guitar sound that got the band tagged as shoegazers, with Springhouse opting instead for a more varied palette, ranging from slide guitar (“Moving Van”) to lush, mournful trumpet (“10 Count”). With members immersed in day jobs—bassist/guitarist Larry Heinemann touring with Blue Man Group; drummer/vocalist Jack Rabid editing venerable ’zine The Big Takeover—the album was assembled in the manner of weekend hobbyists. But the sporadic construction hasn’t produced a disjointed document: With its complex chord changes and unapologetic love of melody, From Now to OK is a reminder of what made the band deserving of more than a small, adoring cult in the first place.
Listen to Springhouse’s “Moving Van” from From Now To OK on the band’s MySpace page.
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by admin
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Appalachian treasure sees light of day
Nimrod Workman sounds close to death, but in 1982, when folk historian Mike Seeger (half-brother of Pete) sat with the then 87-year-old to collect these rustic songs and stories, the entertainer and former coal miner had twelve years yet to go. His voice—weathered, strained and wavering perpetually between a moan and an ecstatic bleat—is the staggering centerpiece of these sparse a capella recordings. On “Coal Black Mining Blues,” an original, Workman mourns the coal mine that employed him for 42 years but denied responsibility for his black lung. “Oh Death” is a desperate negotiation with the Dark Angel himself, and even the traditionally spry “Shady Grove” is tinged with morbid portent. Workman’s toothlessness is audible; so, too, is the spittle on the puckered socket of his mouth. Listen closely and you can even hear his rocking chair—or perhaps his bones—creaking between the lines.
Listen to Nimrod Workman featured on the Down Home Radio Show podcast.
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by admin
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Former Screaming Tree and Sebastian’s Belle encore—call them the “Butter Twins.”
Although he’s become a terrific solo artist, former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan still has a taste for collaboration. Whether as half of the Gutter Twins (with ex-Afghan Whig Greg Dulli), part of Josh Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age, or as an occasional member of Dulli’s Twilight Singers, Lanegan has often done his most compelling work in partnership with others whose strengths offset the raw power of his nicotine-and-bourbon-stained rasp. In 2006, this took the shape of Ballad of the Broken Seas, a duet with former Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell, whose sweetness-and-light persona is as removed from Lanegan’s barroom brio as Scotland is from Seattle. The album worked precisely because of the starkness of the contrast, going down like a tumbler of aged scotch. Sunday at Devil Dirt finds the pair reprising this approach with similarly rewarding results. Like last time, the new album features Lanegan handling lead vocals while Campbell takes on the writing, production and arrangement chores, resulting in a twilight-soaked bundle of songs for the wee small hours, when the light is low and the mood is too. Drink up.
Listen to Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan’s “Come On Over (Turn Me On)” from Sunday at Devil Dirt:
Posted on November 17th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Music, Music, Reviews, cooperative, isobel campbell, issue 49, mark lanegan, sunday at devil dirt, v2 | No Comments »
Release Date: Nov. 14 (limited)
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Writer: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Desplechin
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Emmanuelle Devos, Hippolyte Girardot, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud
Studio/Run Time:
IFC Films, 143 mins.
Complex, pleasing holiday film
A Christmas Tale is a lively, capricious, mischievous ensemble delight—the kind of movie Noah Baumbach would make if he were French and a little more hopeful about humanity. Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) and Junon (Catherine Deneuve) have three grown children, two of whom (Anne Consigny and Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) have long been estranged. Now, as Junon needs a dangerous transfusion to survive cancer, everyone convenes in the family home to celebrate Christmas together.
Though the film deals with many exceptionally depressing topics (mental illness, hatred, life-threatening disease, lost love, betrayal) director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen) never veers into maudlin territory. Instead, with a lightly stylized touch, A Christmas Tale avoids taking itself or its characters’ foibles too seriously. Family members might hate each other, but something like love is underneath it all.
Watch the trailer for A Christmas Tale:
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
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Tim 83/100
Pleased to Meet Me 85/100
Don’t Tell a Soul 60/100
All Shook Down 80/100
A great band that let greatness slip
away
Ranging from the mid-‘80s to the
early-‘90s, the Replacements’ four major-label albums inspire a
feeling of disappointment
—disappointment that they weren’t
better, disappointment that they didn’t make the band into big
stars, and disappointment that they spelled the end of the line for
the woozy, boozy Minneapolis rock ‘n’ rollers. Still, three
of the four final outings from Paul Westerberg and Co. were
exhilarating efforts, and even the relatively bland
Tim offered a few
superior songs
—smart, inspired writing always being the key to
band’s worthiness, however erratic the playing and production.
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
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Assured but understated explorations from jazz up-and-comer
On her fourth disc, flavored with the tones of modern New York jazz, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Anat Cohen strides into the limelight. The depth of Cohen’s talent manifests itself in her ability to pace her playing. On bouncy opener “Washington Square Park,” Cohen maintains a balanced conversation with the other soloists, foreshadowing transitions without bombast or overly technical runs. With an ear for smoother tones but an instinct for Latin-influenced rhythms, Cohen also demonstrates her estimable writing skills on compositions like “Lullaby for the Naive Ones.” The album’s only real weak spot is her gluey blues take on the Sam Cooke masterwork “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Still, if you like your jazz soft and understated but musically dense, Notes From The Village pours like a smooth but complex wine.
Listen to Anat Cohen live at the Village Vanguard on NPR.
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
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Release Date: Nov. 14
Director: Marc Forster
Writer: Paul Haggis, Neal
Purvis, Robert Wade
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga
Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench
Studio/Run Time: MGM/Columbia,
106 mins.
Purists complained when Daniel Craig
was cast as 007 (A blonde Bond?!?), but the semi-reboot Casino
Royale proved them wrong. Craig’s take on Bond turned out to be
lean and vicious. He’s a far cry from any other version of the
character, but no less magnetic. Apply Trainspotting’s
assessment of Sean Connery’s Bond years: He’s a muscular actor. Too
bad the muscles are most of what Craig has to leverage in his second
turn, Quantum of Solace.
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, Reviews, daniel craig, james bond, marc forster, paul haggis, quantum of solace | No Comments »