// Category Archive for: Reviews

Music Review: The Meters, A Message From The Meters: The Complete Josie, Reprise & Warner Brothers Singles 1968-1977

By Melissa Bratcher

We truly live in an age of miracles. You can stroll down to the record store and pick up A Message From The Meters: The Complete Josie, Reprise & Warner Brothers Singles 1968-1977, and then you will hold in your hot little hands, a collection of ALL of the Meters’s singles, with B-sides. And you will be given a fantastic entry point to the best funk band of all time (Oh yes, I will die on that hill because it is a true fact). You could even download it digitally, if that’s your jam, and then you’ll at least have it. But the point is, you need this album.
(more…)

Can I Get A Witness? Absolute Preacher Is A Triumph

By E.A. Henson

The first season of the darkly funny and hyper-violent Preacher TV series recently wrapped up and DC/Vertigo Comics has, coincidentally, just published the first volume of Absolute Preacher. If you’re a new fan of the show or an old fan of the comic this hefty tome is definitely something worthy of your attention.
(more…)

Music Review: Farewell Milwaukee, FM

By Tyler Hodg

Wisconsin may get bitterly cold, but Farewell Milwaukee’s music is nothing but warm. Their fourth studio effort, simply titled FM, wraps around you like a heavy blanket, comforting you with familiar folk-rock sounds that are reminiscent of artists like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. The album may not be the most original collection of music, but that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t have a lasting effect. (more…)

Blu-Ray Review: Venom

By Less Lee Moore

It’s been a good year for Oliver Reed fans. Though the actor passed away in 1999, there have been several recent reissues of his work on Blu-Ray. First, there was Ken Russell’s The Great Composers box set from the BFI, which includes the rarely-seen but significant Reed performance in The Debussy Film. Then there was Hired To Kill, which Arrow Video reissued on May 17. And then, there’s Venom, reissued May 31 from Blue Underground.

I should make it clear that those last two movies are not exactly examples of Oliver Reed at his finest.

(more…)

Music Review: Various Artists, Close To The Noise Floor

By Less Lee Moore

Cherry Red Records has done it again. This time, their triumph comes in the form of Close to the Noise Floor, a four-disc set which gives music junkies a taste of the “quiet electronic revolution that took place across the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s.” The contents are staggeringly impressive and endlessly fascinating, with each disc flawlessly sequenced and boasting its own unique essence.

(more…)

Music Review: Silverhead, Silverhead; 16 And Savaged; Live At The Rainbow, London 1973

By Hanna

Though largely without commercial success at the time, Silverhead were influential by metal and hair metal, besides also being a well-loved glam rock band. Singer Michael Des Barres is a cult figure in music and acting, having combined a fairly successful career in both, and Nigel Harrison of Blondie also started his career in Silverhead.

This series of releases by Cherry Red includes the entire Silverhead discography: the two released albums, Silverhead and 16 and Savaged, some single mixes, live tracks, and B-sides. The series is rounded out by a live album, Live at the Rainbow, London 1973.

(more…)

Music Review: Cass McCombs, Mangy Love

By Tyler Hodg

Cass McCombs is the type of songwriter that most of his peers probably wished they were; his latest work, Mangy Love, is a dulcet-toned, yet impactful album worthy of envy. The California musician is able to accomplish the near-impossible feat of composing tracks that are smooth, subdued, and buoyant at the same time. The line between compelling and uninspired is often thin and full of soft jams, but McCombs makes the distance seem like an eternity—and he’s undoubtedly on the more entertaining side.
(more…)

Music Review: Clara Venice, Electric Dream

By Brian Baker

Don’t let Clara Venice’s saccharin appearance fool you. The cover of her Electric Dream EP features her in multi-colored, pig-tailed hair, licking a lollipop. However, her synth-infused pop is by no means child’s play.
(more…)

Music Review: The Turtles, All The Singles

By Melissa Bratcher

It’s time to give the Turtles another listen. And, lucky for you, their long out of print albums are being rereleased in a handy six CD box set, The Complete Original Albums Collection. If you’re not feeling that completist, a double CD set, All The Singles just might do the trick (what it did for me was make me want to get the six CD set, thankyouverymuch).

(more…)

Movie Review: Suicide Squad

By Tim Murr

The premise is simple and we’ve seen it before, most notably in the film The Dirty Dozen: take a handful of bad guys, throw them together for a suicide mission, and voila, instant action film. In the case of Suicide Squad, the mission is to get inside Midway City and extract an important someone who is trapped downtown during some kind of terror attack. Of course, the threat is much larger and weirder than anyone would admit to, so this loose cadre of crazy criminals has to learn to be team players on the fly in order to complete the mission… and if they don’t, well, the man in charge, Rick Flagg will just blow their heads off with the push of a button.

(more…)