// Category Archive for: Current Faves

Dots to Connect: The Music Of The Prids

By Jemiah Jefferson

Tribute albums can be a tricky thing. Gathering the right combination of bands and artists to do the best work in performing new versions of well-known songs has got to be difficult. This is one of the facts that makes this compilation’s success as remarkable as it is. Not every track is a keeper, but the ones that are stand on their own as showcases for the bands performing them as well as the exceptional songwriting that has become one of the Prids’ trademarks.
(more…)

I Heard Your Voice In Cambridge: Elvis Perkins In Dearland

By Chelsea Spear

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA
April 22, 2009

The music of Elvis Perkins has a cathartic quality that borders on the spiritual. His vivid, fever-dream lyrics draw on Biblical themes and imagery (note the title of his first album, Ash Wednesday, and its closing song “Good Friday”), his melodies share the memorable simplicity of hymns, and he and his band perform them with great fervor and no small emotion. Thus, it seemed appropriate that they would grace the stage of the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass.
(more…)

The Venture Bros., The Music of JG Thirlwell

By Megashaun

Cartoons are typically not known for their musical scores. In fact, for many that I watched growing up, the music was often more of an afterthought (outside of the main title theme, that is). Incidental music in The Transformers, for instance, was so generic and overused that the show even shared many of its compositions (if they could be called that) with its counterpart half-hour Hasbro commercial, G.I. Joe.
(more…)

Escape With the Runaways

By Todd A. Brownlie

Stepping into a comic book series can be confusing and frustrating for most newcomers. Big name heroes, like the X-Men and Captain America, have been around for decades, with story arcs and characters so fleshed-out, it requires constant research into their past history. Maybe it’s the lack of dialogue or even a thin, uninspired plot in a series that will instantly cause you to set the issue down and just walk away.
(more…)

Michael Hurtt and His Haunted Hearts, Come Back To Louisiana

By Less Lee Moore

When first heard Michael Hurtt and His Haunted Hearts, I was dazzled. I’d seen Hurtt play with The Royal Pendletons dozens of times when I lived in New Orleans, but this was something altogether different.
(more…)

Renato Zero, Presente

By Hanna

Presente is a great album—if you can get it. As a result of his breaking with Sony, Renato has released it independently, as he’s emphasized overly clearly in interviews. It’s like a perfect tiny illustration of protectionism: while the independent release has had many advantages—more control over promotion, a more detailed concept and, of course, the uncommercial 17 tracks of the CD—it also means it isn’t for sale anywhere outside of Italy. The Sorcini network has insured it gets shared, but it is a situation that should be resolved, as this is shutting many people out and alienating an already detached market.
(more…)

Depeche Mode, Sounds Of The Universe

By Lisa Anderson

The boys of Depeche Mode and I go way back. This relationship has had its ups and downs, but the romance has been rekindled. I was able to reconnect with them last month when they released Sounds Of The Universe, their first new album in four years.
(more…)

LOST: Why I Never Left The Island & Why You Need To Go Back

By M. Bevis

I’m not a big fan of television; you might even say that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve removed daily TV consumption from my life to the point where it is almost totally absent. I just can’t seem to sit through an entire show these days, mostly due to incessant advertising and the seizure-inducing graphics and attendant volume. But as a reformed couch potato, it isn’t easy kicking the habit. I still get my required fix of quality programming via the web or DVD. When my TV is actually switched on, you might catch me watching the news, or maybe the odd PBS special. But there is one show that always commands the remote, the only show that I am hopelessly, unapologetically addicted to: LOST.
(more…)

Shiny Around the Edges, Holy Roller

By J Howell

Denton, Texas’ Shiny Around the Edges, a band described by the Dallas Observer as “somewhere between Low and Swans,” are a little hard to explain.
(more…)

Weep, Never Ever

By Less Lee Moore

5. Weep is completely without marketing savvy and has no idea how to “make-it”. Therefore: your love of Weep will never be sullied. You can always enjoy your hip status of loving an underground band.
—From the Weep Manifesto

(more…)