// Category Archive for: Reviews

Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks

By Less Lee Moore

After all the articles I’ve written, after all the mix tapes and CDs I’ve made, after all the years of continual and ridiculous fangirling over Sparks. . . do I really need to convince you that they are one of the most wonderful bands of the last 40 years?

If only there were some sort of written chronology of their illustrious career, perhaps one that covers the band’s history, album by album, with salient or illuminating quotes from those who have known, followed, and worked with the band from its inception to the present day. . . it would just make things so much easier.

Thankfully, writer Daryl Easlea has answered my cries for help and written Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks.
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Howe Gelb, ‘Sno Angel Winging It (Live) CD + DVD

By J Howell

A few years back, I read about what at the time seemed like the most bizarre thing I’d ever heard of: a Howe Gelb record that featured the Giant Sand mainstay with a Canadian Gospel Choir.

Now, I’d been a Giant Sand fan for a while at that point. I’d seen Gelb solo live a couple of years before, opening for John Parish. During his set he improvised a song about the wobbly fan onstage; at one point he even played guitar with his hands while banging on the piano with his feet. His only instructions to the soundman that night were, and I quote, “Can you make this guitar loud as fuck?”
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Shad, TSOL

By Matt Demers

When an acclaimed artist manages to dodge the sophmore album curse, it almost becomes a race to see when he or she is going to screw up. Each successive album becomes a nail-biter, with fans and critics alike hoping that this album won’t be the CODA of the artist’s discography, condemned to ridicule and revulsion.

Listening to rapper Shad’s prior two albums, you’d think karma would be against him. 2005’s When It’s Over and 2008’s The Old Prince are cornerstones in Canadian hip-hop, and represent an intelligent artist whose sound is maturing. This year’s TSOL, released on May 25, looked to be a next step for Shad: he had perked listeners’ ears with The Old Prince‘s catchy tunes and deep message, and now had a stage to define himself. This was his chance to emerge from his London, Ontario beginnings and show people what he was made of.

And thank God he didn’t screw up.
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John Lennon: Rare and Unseen DVD

By John Lane

The problem with the release of The Beatles’ Anthology video in the late ’90s is that it has spoiled Beatles fans the world over. Add to that the ever-flowing river that is YouTube, which has made curiosity-seekers even more complacent. Want to see a Beatles 1966 press conference? Bingo, with the click of a button you have your pick.

Perhaps it is the veritable abundance of organized material available to the average and dedicated fans that makes the DVD release of John Lennon: Rare and Unseen all the more disappointing and confusing. If I was in the eighth grade and had not yet seen the release of the Anthology or the birth of YouTube, then I might consider this DVD to be a kick. As it stands, maybe I’m just too jaded.
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Kinks Kommentary: CD, DVD, And Live Reviews

By Ann Clarke

My fandom with the Kinks goes back as far as pre-school age. They are the reason I love and obsess over music as much as I do, and they raised the bar of excellence for my tastes to follow throughout my life.

They are not a recent fad with me. I didn’t decide they were great once I heard The Village Green Preservation Society, like bullshitting journalists out there claim to give themselves street-cred. I even obsessed over them during the ’80s when it wasn’t cool to like them! So, my reviews come from a lifetime commitment of love and knowledge. . . which are going to be exceedingly honest. The following reviews are listed in chronological order based upon when I first observed them.
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Arcadia, So Red The Rose Special Edition

By Less Lee Moore

One would think that with so many Duran Duran CDs, at least six Duran Duran DVDs, and a box of VHS tapes, I’d have enough to satisfy me. But as Hamlet used to say, it’s “As if increase of appetite had grown/By what it fed on.” And if you think that sounds pretentious, you should listen to Arcadia’s So Red The Rose.

Now now, calm down. I kid. I kid because I love. For those who haven’t been Duranies since the dawn of the ’80s, I’ll fill you in: Arcadia was a side project of Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes, Simon LeBon, and Roger Taylor. The band came to fruition in 1985, after the release of Duran Duran’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger album.
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HTRK, Marry Me Tonight: In Memory Of Sean Stewart

By Julie Finley

At the end of 2009, I stumbled upon an Australian band known as HTRK (pronounced “Hate Rock”). Their name was linked to the late great Rowland S. Howard, and I had to figure out what the connection was (this was before Rowland had passed. . . R.I.P. RSH!)

HTRK were linked to a few musical icons other than Rowland, all part of a corps of musicians hailing from Melbourne, Australia. The most direct link is to The Devastations. HTRK Singer Jonnine Standish is married to The Devastations’ Conrad Standish, and the matrimony doesn’t end there; the other members of HTRK (Nigel Yang and Sean Stewart) were involved with the Devastations musically as well.
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Suburbia Collector’s Edition

By Less Lee Moore

One weekend in 1986, a friend of mine invited me and a bunch of other freak friends over to watch Suburbia, Penelope Spheeris’ quasi-documentary look at the early ’80s punk scene. My memory is fuzzy on the details of the plot; I mostly remember being disturbed by the other movie we watched, Faces of Death. I do remember that everyone else in the group, some of whom looked somewhat similar to the punk teens examined in Suburbia, were merciless in mocking it; to this day, I still recall the particular scorn they heaped upon the T.R. “gang” depicted in the film, T.R. standing, of course, for “The Rejected.”

I had not seen Suburbia again until this latest Collector’s Edition DVD, so like with Rock ‘n’ Roll High School‘s reissue, I was curious to see if the movie was actually good (or what actually took place in the movie). I think it’s actually worse than I remembered.
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Rock ‘n’ Roll High School 30th Anniversary Special Edition

By Less Lee Moore

Although for many, The Ramones represent the birth of the US punk scene in the ’70s, I was only about three years old when the band first formed in 1974. For me, The Ramones were the four weird-looking, tall dudes who kept popping up in promos for MTV in 1981. Most of the videos in the early days of MTV were fairly bizarre; at that point the channel would show any videos they could and the shift to glamorous, new wave pretty boys had not yet occurred. However, even amongst Loverboy, Meatloaf, Split Enz, and The Tubes, The Ramones looked pretty damn strange.

I didn’t see Rock ‘n’ Roll High School until a few years later, when I’d officially hit my own teenage years. I remember feeling confused and vaguely uncomfortable, not totally grasping why it was supposed to be so great. The news of the upcoming release of a 30th Anniversary Special Edition made me curious to see how the film as aged. Would it be funny? Would it be relevant?

Thankfully, the answer to both questions is, “YES.”
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Review: Peacock

By Lisa Anderson

Not much happens in the small, quiet town of Peacock, Nebraska, until one day, a train caboose jumps the rail and lands in the backyard of bank clerk John Skillpa. Everyone thinks the young Skillpa is a bachelor, and has lived alone in the house since the death of his mother the previous year; when the neighbors rush to the scene however, they find an woman—thankfully uninjured—who they’ve never met before.

She introduces herself as Emma and says that she lives there. Soon, this woman, who all assume to be John’s wife, is drawn not only into the web of state and local politics focused on the runaway caboose, but also into the dark secrets of John’s life, which he had been keeping even from her.
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