// Category Archive for: Current Faves

Rick Springfield’s Beginnings: Younger Than Tomorrow, Wise As Yesterday

By Cait Brennan

I can’t prove this, but I suspect Rick Springfield‘s career began with the discovery of a magic lamp. A magic lamp with a particularly devious Jinn contained therein. Since he was a teenager, Springfield has been on the receiving end of some of the luckiest breaks a young rocker could’ve wished for in his wildest dreams. Yet too many of them went inexplicably off the rails despite his formidable talents. Such was his major-label debut, the indispensable, shoulda-been-a-smash Beginnings, released in 1972 on Capitol and recently reissued by a great new label called Real Gone Music. It’s one of 1972’s best albums, and one of the best you’ll hear in 2012, too.
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Johnny Headband, Who Cooks For You?

By Less Lee Moore

Who Cooks For You? is the latest release from Detroit’s Johnny Headband, featuring brothers Chad and Keith Thompson (the latter of Electric Six), plus Gerald Roesser and and Robbie Saunders. Like the music itself, Who Cooks For You? poses an unanswered (or unanswerable) question: Who (or what) is Johnny Headband? Who Cooks For You? seems familiar yet it’s not beholden to current “indie” music trends; it refuses to be pigeonholed but all the same, it is one ridiculously enjoyable album. Who Cooks For You? crams a lot of flavor into its 35 minutes.

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The Cabin In The Woods (spoiler free!)

By Lisa Anderson

Do you love the horror genre, but feel like it’s in a rut? Do you like rooting for main characters in a terrifying situation, but find that in recent movies, they’re often one-dimensional or unlikable? Do you enjoy the exquisite treat of being confronted with a Big Bad that’s been built up for over an hour . . . but wish that could happen without a lot of sexism or torture porn?

If, so, fortunately, Joss Whedon agrees with you.
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Battle Royale: The Complete Collection

By Less Lee Moore

For those (like me) who have not yet been seduced by the legendary Japanese film Battle Royale, this new Anchor Bay collection—featuring the theatrical cut, the 2001 special edition, Battle Royale: Requiem, plus a disc of featurettes and extras—is nothing short of jaw-dropping. The four-disc set comes in a beautifully packaged booklet and is available in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats.

Battle Royale was originally released in 2000, and was adapted from Koushun Takami’s controversial 1999 novel of the same name. The film exploded into the new millennium, riveting audiences, breaking box office records, outraging censors, and transfixing a generation of film nerds like Quentin Tarantino. Its synopsis is straightforward:

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The Red Bird Girls: very first time in true Stereo 1964-1966 (Various Artists)

By Melissa Bratcher

There are few moments that can’t be improved upon by a good song from a girl group. Happiness is magnified, heartbreak is more monumental, a pretty summer day shines with sweet harmonies, “yeah yeahs,” and fantastic hairdos. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact.

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Carole King, Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King

By Emily Carney

Some context on Carole King: This singer songwriter, who is rather unfairly relegated to oldies radio stations in the US, had serious credibility within the world of girl-groups in the 1960s. At age 18, she co-wrote “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with her then-husband Gerry Goffin, which was performed by the Shirelles. This song was covered beautifully in recent years by the late Amy Winehouse.
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Paul Weller, Sonik Kicks

By Jemiah Jefferson

This is Paul Weller’s eleventh solo album and “The Modfather” shows no signs of becoming complacent, stymied, or anything less than a phenomenal songwriter and musician. Sonik Kicks contains almost too much variety in style and approach, and while it doesn’t necessarily smoothly flow from track to track, there is excellence aplenty to admire.
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Frank Sinatra, The Concert Sinatra

By Melissa Bratcher

I believe that there are Dean Martin people, there are Frank Sinatra people, and that they are rarely the same sort of people. I love Dean Martin for the thread of good humor that runs through his music, but I’ve always thought of Frank Sinatra as immensely talented, yet a bit dour. The Concert Sinatra changed my mind.

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The Melismatics, Mania!

By Danny R. Phillips

There are many things in life that I find perplexing, things that occur or don’t despite what the world thinks or needs. Why did MTV give Pauly D. from The Jersey Shore his own show while still ignoring videos? How can someone listen to Skrillex for more than two minutes without committing ritual suicide? How in the world is Keith Richards still alive? Why aren’t the Minneapolis, Minnesota band The Melismatics famous yet?
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The Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart, At Least We Have Each Other

By Kai Shuart

The Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart is a collaborative effort between Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston (whose song “Bad Reputation” I really enjoyed back in the day), and Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills musician family and the Continental Drifters (a band which included, among others, Vicki Peterson of the Bangles). The group’s debut album, At Least We Have Each Other, is finally available after being in the works for a couple of years thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign.
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