// Category Archive for: Feminism

Indiegogo Campaign: Ink Is A Body Horror/Creature Short Film That Needs Your Help

By Less Lee Moore

Although horror is often considered a masculine domain, there are many female horror fans who can quickly disprove that stereotype. One is photographer Ashlea Wessel, who is currently working on her short film debut, Ink. As a huge fan of monster movies, Ashlea always wanted to make her own movie; such cinematic ideals have frequently seeped into her photographs over the years.

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Music Review: Zola Jesus, TAIGA

By Ben van D

If Frozen were a greasepaint opera, a Brechtian musical set in a hinterland abyss, and directed by Robert Wilson, it would bear a passable resemblance to TAIGA. “Let It Go” would fit in surprisingly well with the themes of self-reinvention and severance from the tethers of the past running through Zola Jesus’s (Nika Danilova) latest offering. Even the winter woodland setting from which the album draws its name is a parallel. None of these are to TAIGA‘s detriment, however. This is markedly a pop album, more so by far than any of Danilova’s offerings to date, and any passing likeness to Disney’s ubiquitous pop monster hit is a feather in its cap.

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Music Review: Lowell, We Loved Her Dearly

By Less Lee Moore

You live in a man’s world, I live in my own world.
I tell you I don’t want you anymore.
—Lowell, “I Love You Money”

Imagine if there were a female singer/songwriter/musician who’s a Britney Spears-loving feminist, a former stripper who self-identifies as bisexual, and who has synasthesia. And imagine that her music is poppy and provocative and that she sings like both an angel and a banshee. That person is real and her name is Lowell.

Lowell first came to my attention earlier this year with her dynamic and delightful EP I Killed Sara V. (review). Its first track, “Cloud 69,” is a unique slice of sugary, sexy pop and like nothing else I’ve heard. We Loved Her Dearly contains that EP’s five tracks plus seven more and it’s going to blow your mind and break your heart.

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Music Review: Lucinda Williams, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

By Melissa Bratcher

There is no one quite like Lucinda Williams: her voice, her particularly Southern identity, her phrasing, her stunning writing. A true American iconoclast, she has been recording for over four decades, and shows no signs of compromising her integrity or sense of self. On her new album, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, released on her own independent label, Highway 20 Records, Williams speaks for the poor, the rejected, and the disenfranchised while asking for compassion. Of the 20 songs on the album, she wrote 18 of them, and her very particular voice could not be clearer.

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Music Review: The History Of Apple Pie, Feel Something

By Melissa Bratcher

On their second album, Feel Something, London’s The History Of Apple Pie fully embrace the ‘90s throwback, shoe-gazey style that they explored on their previous release, 2013’s Out Of View. Listening to Feel Something is like taking a trip back to the not terribly long ago, but longer than I think it was past. The cover of Feel Something even looks a bit like a My Bloody Valentine cover.

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Music Review: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Cheek To Cheek

By Tyler Hodg

Tony Bennett is a clock that keeps on ticking. His career has spanned over 65 years and he shows no signs of slowing down. For his 57th studio album (!!), Bennett calls upon a familiar friend—Lady Gaga—to record a duet album of jazz standards titled Cheek To Cheek. What initially seems like an unlikely pairing is in fact something incredibly special; listening to this album is a reminder of how great these two artists truly are.

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Music Review: Laetitia Sadier, Something Shines

By Melissa Bratcher

On her third solo album, Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier treads her accustomed ground, while also shaking things up. Something Shines sounds like a Stereolab record, with space rock, jittering ‘60s tropicalia, and her trademark rich, distant alto. It also shatters song structure, abruptly changing to another style of music whilst in the middle of a song, like a collage. It’s a sometimes-frustrating album, with moments of brilliance.

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Music Review: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Bring Us Together

By Melissa Bratcher

Danish pop group The Asteroids Galaxy Tour have returned with a spacey (as one might expect with a name like The Asteroids Galaxy Tour), but still danceable, musical collage that breaks new ground for them and still sticks to their signature style. The duo of singer Mette Lindberg and instrumentalist Lars Iversen makes evocative electronic music that is made warmer by Lindberg’s delightful singing voice. She sings like Björk and Billie Holiday and Christina Amphlett were put in a juicer with a little honey. Kind of.

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Music Review: The Fauntleroys, Below The Pink Pony

By Melissa Bratcher

I fully expected to enjoy the debut EP from The Fauntleroys, a new collaboration (I’m not using the word “supergroup” because it’s just embarrassing on principle) from Ivan Julian (founding member of the Voidoids), Linda Pitmon (Zuzu’s Petals, The Baseball Project), Nicholas Tremulis (Chicago-based soul iconoclast), and Alejandro Escovedo (Rank and File, The Nuns, and an amazing solo career). What I didn’t expect was to love Below The Pink Pony as much as I do. It’s six fantastic, loose, throwback songs done by stellar musicians who are obviously having a great time.

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Movie Review: Honeymoon

By Less Lee Moore

Leigh Janiak’s first directorial effort, Honeymoon, wants very much to successfully blend the feel of an indie dramedy with science fiction films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t succeed in either capacity.

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