// Category Archive for: Current Faves

TV Review: Outsiders S1 E13, “Long Live The Bren’in”

Published on May 4th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Reviews, TV, TV Reviews |

By Laury Scarbro

S1E13

This episode was directed by Peter Weller, and I truly hope to see him do more episodes next season. Episodes of other shows that he has directed (such as Sons of Anarchy, Salem, The Strain, and Tyrant) have been some of the best that those shows had to offer. The otherworldly aspects of Shay Mountain and it’s inhabitants have only been vaguely hinted at thus far, and I believe he did an excellent job in ratcheting up the spook factor.

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Music Review: Jimbo Mathus, Band Of Storms

Published on May 3rd, 2016 in: Americana, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

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New music from Jimbo Mathus is always cause for celebration. The former (and soon to be current again) Squirrel Nut Zipper makes music that is deeply steeped in the South. It’s a melange of influences—gritty swamp rock with a hot hit of blues, a dash of gospel, bluegrass, and more than a little honky tonk—and it comes out sounding exactly right. His latest, a nine-song EP called Band Of Storms, is more of what makes Mathus great. He may wear his influences on his sleeve, but the sound that he has is pure Jimbo Mathus.

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TV Review: Time Traveling Bong

Published on May 2nd, 2016 in: Comedy, Current Faves, Reviews, TV, TV Reviews |

By Sachin Hingoo

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In a scene at the end of Time Traveling Bong, Ilana Glazer’s Sharee wraps up a bonghit-punctuated journey by stating her discovery of “how shitty the world has been for women forever.” Though this is made really clear as Sharee goes through horrific witch trials before nearly being burned alive in 1600s Salem, is sexually harassed in the 1960s, and is indifferently probed right in the tit in a dystopian future. If Time Traveling Bong can be said to have a point at all (as if it needs one), it’s that Sharee needs to discover the plight of women throughout history in order to see how willingly and thoroughly she’s relinquished her own freedom and sense of agency in her current life.

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In Case You Missed It: April 24 – 30, 2016—Throwing Shade In The Green Room

Published on May 1st, 2016 in: Comedy, Current Faves, Documentaries, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Horror, ICYMI, LGBTQ, Movie Reviews, Movies, Music, Music Reviews, Pop Culture News, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews, The Internets, TV, TV Reviews |

By Less Lee Moore

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Even Tommy Shelby wants to see more diversity in TV.

Did you know that April 8 is the day in Queer History that all homosexuals were cured? Hahaha, we’re just kidding. It’s actually the day that homosexuality was removed from the DSM.

And speaking of queer folks, here’s an open letter to the TV industry about why we’re so fucking sick of straight white dudes.

In other TV news, Sachin Hingoo bids farewell to Broad City until next season with the hilarious “Jews on a Plane” and Laury Scarbro reveals how all hell breaks loose on Outsiders in the appropriately titled episode, “All Hell.”

May is the month when the long-awaited Season 3 of Peaky Blinders arrives on our TV screens. Did you know David Bowie was a fan of the show? Try to keep your eyes from leaking when you read about what he sent to the show’s lead actor, Cillian Murphy. (Here’s a recent, wonderful, career-spanning interview with Mr. Murphy that includes some lovely photos.)

Everyone is talking about the talking animals in The Jungle Book movie but don’t forget about Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to Blue Ruin, called Green Room. Brian Baker took the plunge and reviewed this ultraviolent, ultra-brilliant film. You might forget about Hardcore Henry after you see it, though, as Tyler Hodg remarks in his review.

Meanwhile, on the home video front, Jeffery X Martin tackles the “bad crazy” with Arrow’s reissue of Niko Mastorakis’s The Zero Boys, Sachin has warm fuzzies over the white foam in the Blu of ‘80s schlock horror The Stuff, and Melissa Bratcher is delighted that Bayou Maharajah, the doc about infamous New Orleans piano player James Booker, is finally available for everyone to see.

Bone Tomahawk was my favorite movie of 2015 but I’ve never seen one entry in Charles Band’s bizarrely legendary Puppet Master series, so imagine my surprise (and delight?) to learn that the director behind Bone Tomahawk is helming the Band-less Puppet Master reboot. Modern Horrors has the deets.

Oh, and if you’ve always wanted to delve into actor Sho Kosugi’s career, The ScreamCast can help with their most recent podcast, “A Show on Sho.”

It’s been just over a week and we’re still trying to come to terms with a world without Prince. Here’s a stupendous 2009 article from the L.A. Times about the side of Prince that most people in the public rarely saw. Then, lighten up with this hilarious YouTube video, a compilation of all the times that Prince threw shade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4k-d88BEsI&feature=youtu.be

We have a ton of new music for you to check out this week: Tim Murr raves over the David Lynch aura of Dark Palms’ Hoxbar Ghost Town and insists that Grindmother’s Age Of Destruction is not a novelty album; Melissa calls The Jayhawks’ Paging Mr. Proust “a record for the ages” and marvels at the depth and breadth of Cherry Red’s latest comp, Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980 – 1985; while X comforts us with the fact that at least Rob Zombie is good at coming up with song and album titles.

Could it be that Ke$ha is finally free? Find out about this and the “boycott Beyonce” movement on Unicorn Booty’s latest installment of NOW HEAR THIS!

Since tomorrow is a Monday (groan!), here is something that might make the day go a bit faster: a list of 11 hilarious and slightly political celebrities that you must follow on Twitter.

TV Review: Outsiders S1 E12, “All Hell”

Published on April 29th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Reviews, TV, TV Reviews |

By Laury Scarbro

S1E12

“All Hell” is an appropriate title for this episode, as in all hell is breaking loose, finally. Things are really coming to a head now, with all roads leading to Shay Mountain. The coal held within the mountain notwithstanding, it seems that everyone is out for Farrell blood, even the Farrells themselves.

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Music Review: Dark Palms, Hoxbar Ghost Town

Published on April 29th, 2016 in: Americana, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Post-Punk, Reviews |

By Tim Murr

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I have waited months to write this review. Why? Because I’ve had access to Dark Palms’ debut album, Hoxbar Ghost Town, since last year. I fell in love with this beast right away, but I couldn’t share it with anyone! No one could know the joy and energy I was devouring while waiting for it to officially drop. Now, friends, the time is yours, to join me on this journey into the weird, dark heart of this post-punk, Americana-goth adventure!

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Music Review: The Jayhawks, Paging Mr. Proust

Published on April 29th, 2016 in: Americana, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

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With their welcome return, Paging Mr. Proust, the Jayhawks have made an album that will stand the test of time. Packed with lovely melodies and sumptuously lush harmonies, but lacking the obvious twang of their previous outings, Paging Mr. Proust is essential. Frontman Gary Louris (joined by longtime Jayhawks Karen Grotberg, Marc Perlman, and Tim O’Reagan) has created a very literary, confident album that opens strong and never stops.

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Music Review: Grindmother, Age Of Destruction

Published on April 28th, 2016 in: Canadian Content, Current Faves, Feminism, Metal, Music, Music Reviews, Post-Punk, Punk, Reviews |

By Tim Murr

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Last year Windsor, Ontario’s Corrupt Leaders unleashed a sick grindcore EP called Grindmother, named for vocalist Rain Forest’s mom who provided guest vocals on the album. A video of this wonderful 67-year-old woman singing grind core went viral, leading the Grindmother to record a single and now her debut album, with guitars provided by her son and Tyson Apex on drums.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Zero Boys

Published on April 27th, 2016 in: Action Movies, Blu-Ray, Current Faves, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Jeffery X Martin

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The Zero Boys is a horror/action movie from 1985 that raises the bar of ineptitude stunningly high. You would have to try with all your might, and maybe someone else’s, to come up with a film this insipid nowadays. It may be a testament to the filmmaking talents of director Nico Mastorakis that a movie as totally brain-dead as The Zero Boys is as entertaining as it is.

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Music Review: Another Splash Of Colour, New Psychedelia In Britain 1980-1985

Published on April 27th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews, Underground/Cult |

By Melissa Bratcher

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As tends to happen, music cycles back on itself with alarming regularity. In the early 1980s, psychedelia raised its brightly-colored, paisley-swirled head from slumber and awoke to a new wave in Britain (and in the States, but that isn’t what this is about). These weren’t New Romantics, they weren’t post-punks, though you could argue that everything was post-punk at that point. No, they were the New Psychedelics and for a brief glimmer of time, they revived Chelsea boots and Mary Quant skirts and that oh-so-specific sound. To quote New Psychedelic band Firmament and the Elements, “Was it good? Yea, verily.”

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