// Category Archive for: Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: The Weapon

By Brad Henderson

As I’ve been going through the movies that Olive Films has reissued, I’ve been finding some that are truly unique, amazing, and kind of unknown. One of these is called The Weapon.

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Music Review: Ryley Walker, Primrose Green

By Melissa Bratcher

Ryley Walker’s album Primrose Green feels like it was made by a man unstuck in time. It could be a lost Tim Buckley or Nick Drake album with its jazz-inflected, acoustic guitar-driven pastoral quality. Walker is an amazing guitar player, taking the instrument from gentle, bucolic strumming to aggressively percussive. His fingerpicking is otherworldly.

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Music Review: KDH, Piedmont Rose

By Tyler Hodg

Whoever said rock ‘n’ roll is dead is sorely wrong; it’s just been beaten, battered, and bruised, and KDH (Kill Devil Hills) are here to let everyone know. With the release of their sophomore album Piedmont Rose, KDH once again brings their low-fi, high energy, in-your-face sound to the masses, living proof that rock ‘n’ roll is alive and well.

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Music Review: Broken Water, Wrought

By Tyler Hodg

Music is constantly evolving and yet at certain moments, it stands completely still. With their latest full-length album Wrought, Washington punk-rock band Broken Water continues to display their musical influences in their own music, creating a nostalgic-sounding record that will remind many listeners of their angst-filled teenage years. Wrought is totally grunge-tastic and is a blatant throwback to a sound that seems to have gotten lost in recent time.

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Music Review: Humming House, Revelries

By Tyler Hodg

The amount of talented musicians that Nashville, Tennessee produces is insurmountable; it’s always been that way and the city shows no signs of slowing down. Humming House, yet another act to come from the legendary area, is further proof that Nashville still has that touch. In a time when mainstream country music seems to be at its lowest creative level, Humming House shines bright with their latest release Revelries, a joyous album that serves as significant hope for the stifled genre.

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Music Review: Vetiver, Complete Strangers

By Melissa Bratcher

Vetiver’s Complete Strangers is like a time machine. The tracks range from lo-fi synth escapades to AM radio gold with a dose of late ‘80s/early ‘90s indie rock. It feels completely familiar and quite unusual at the same time, taking classic song structures and putting them in a blender to make something wholly new.

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Music Review: Leo “Bud” Welch, I Don’t Prefer No Blues

By Melissa Bratcher

Eighty-two-year-old bluesman Leo “Bud” Welch has recently recorded an album for Fat Possum/Big Legal Mess Records, home of R.L. Burnside and Mississippi Fred McDowell, as well as current favorites Jimbo Mathus and Jim Mize. While being a blues record through and through, I Don’t Prefer No Blues sounds so current and fresh that Jack White is probably gnashing his teeth in envy. I Don’t Prefer No Blues has an incredibly live feeling that features Welch’s well-weathered vocals and his flat-out amazing guitar playing. It’s a stunner of an album, and it’s only his second record (the previous was the all-gospel record Sabougla Voices).

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Music Review: Blancmange, Semi Detached

By Jeffery X Martin

Blancmange’s fifth album, Semi Detached, is the first one recorded without core member Stephen Luscombe. Remaining founder Neil Arthur has taken the opportunity to revitalize the Blancmange brand name by taking the music on a gleeful trip to hell. It’s also one of the purest synth-pop albums in years, with electric guitar mainly layered in for texture.

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SXSW Movie Review: Raiders!

By Brad Henderson

Since childhood, I’ve wanted to make movies. Last night I got to watch a documentary about a group of kids who were determined to make a shot for shot remake of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Raiders! tells the story of this incredible attempt and the resulting admirable success.

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SXSW Movie Review: Welcome To Leith

By Brad Henderson

If you’re an actual human being with dignity, you already know racism is a terrible thing. Well, if you’re racist against racists then I guess that’s OK. . . or stupid people. Hell, I’m a racist then.

We all know it exists but I think the world is unfamiliar with how bad it is sometimes. The news doesn’t broadcast a lot of these kinds of things. One person I think people are definitely unfamiliar with is Craig Cobb. I’d heard of Cobb before seeing Welcome To Leith, but this film showed me who Cobb really is. A lot of words come to mind trying to describe Cobb, but to put it simply: he’s a fucking racist. A big one.

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