Flogging Molly, Speed Of Darkness

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

Speed of Darkness, the fifth album by Flogging Molly comes in low, Perfect Circle-style, for a full 30 seconds and then crashes into one’s ears like a comet of sound.

Full of working contradiction, the band is a proud member of the new Celtic rock music generation along with The Pogues or The Secret Commonwealth. From their own record label Borstal Beat, Speed of Darkness is a self-professed concept album in an age of MP3s and singles, with the pounding rhythm of punk, but the articulated lyrical message of traditional Irish music.
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Falling Between Stars: What About BSG‘s Starbuck?

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

What is it about Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, played by Katee Sackhoff, which excites the fans of Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009) so much? Could it be her singular passion for the thrill of flight and fight? Perhaps it is her rebellion against authority. Or maybe it is something less clear and more ambiguous—her ability to step between expectations and limits and dance between the stars.
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The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

For the most part, I tend to be attracted to bluesy lyrics that grip my gut and pull me involuntarily into sound and words. Instrumental jazz, like classical music, usually blends into background for me. Yet, I was introduced to the trumpeter/band leader Miles Davis by a dear ex-housemate, whose taste for adventure extends from Frank Zappa to Hot Chip. With that recommendation in mind, I committed to the experience of a two-disc set—The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige.
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Life: Keith Richards with James Fox

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

If one has ever heard Keith Richards interviewed, one knows his stories are amazingly well remembered for a man who was rumored to exist only through artificial means. The front flap of the dust jacket of Life explains this memoir of Keith Richards’ life completely and succinctly, “This is the Life. Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it. Thanks and praises Keith Richards.”

Expected was a standard rambling account of drugs, sex, and rock & roll. Instead, what was delivered displayed a coherent story of Tolkien-inspired male friendship; awkward yet endearing fumbles through art, business, and parenting; a tribute to those who didn’t survive; and music of all genres soaking into the words, like the mixed odor of tobacco and whiskey.
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Over the Rhine, The Long Surrender

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

I was introduced to Over the Rhine when they opened for Ani DiFranco a few years ago. The girlfriend who bought us the tickets explained to me that the married duo of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler had begun making music in the arena of Contemporary Christian, but had then broadened their reach to incorporate the deeply personal mundane that dominates the singer-songwriter genre these days. When I picked up The Long Surrender, I expected something similar to what I heard onstage so long ago. Their press release and the Notes within (a preface to the duo’s musical story written by their producer Joe Henry) argued against these preconceptions.
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