// Category Archive for: Reviews

Music Review: Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys, Ionia

By Melissa Bratcher

While they’re marketed as a roots ensemble and a string band, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys have a seriously jazzy vibe to them. They play mandolins, dobros, stand-up bass, steel guitar, and take those instruments to an interesting place: playing them percussively, angularly, expressionistically. Lead vocalist Lindsay Lou’s voice isn’t a rootsy voice, either. There’s a dusky richness to her voice, and her slides from chest voice to upper register are elegant though she makes it sound incredibly easy.

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Comedy Review: The Audio AdventureBook of Big Dan Frater, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

Big Dan Frater (Brian Howe), Dutch “The Swede” Annacrombie (Dan Conroy), and plucky town librarian Millie Healey (Allison Martin) were all characters in a movie called Trail of the Screaming Forehead, written and directed by Larry Blamire. They were an amusing onscreen trio, certainly strong enough to carry an entire movie on their shoulders, but their triumphant return to the screen never panned out.

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Music Review: Various Artists, The Magical Mystery Psych Out – A Tribute To The Beatles

By Melissa Bratcher

It must be more than a bit daunting to cover the Beatles. They’re The Beatles for the love of Pete, the alpha and the omega, the ones from whom everything good sprung, the band that changed everything. (True fact: I once was friends with a woman who said, “I don’t really like the Beatles.” I realized from that moment that she was a horrible person and I couldn’t be friends with her anymore. And I wasn’t.)

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Music Review: Dick Diver, Melbourne, Florida

By Tyler Hodg

Returning with their third LP, Melbourne, Florida, Dick Diver looks to further prove themselves as an up and coming group to watch out for. The Australian band’s sound is pop at its core, with all the fixings that make up an indie band nowadays: slower, spacey songs with way too much reverb. Although Melbourne, Florida has a current style to it, unfortunately it isn’t up to the quality of what else is out there at the moment.

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Music Review: Will Butler, Policy

By Tyler Hodg

One year after the release of Arcade Fire’s Grammy-nominated, Juno award-winning album Reflektor, bassist Will Butler momentarily slips away from the band to release his debut solo album titled Policy. Venturing out on your own musically is sure to be a difficult—and possibly terrifying—task, but Will Butler was able to successfully pull it off. Saying that Policy is better than most of Arcade Fire’s music would be false, but it holds its own when compared to the critical darlings.

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Music Review: Joe Pug, Windfall

By Melissa Bratcher

Austin-based indie folkster Joe Pug has weathered a lot of comparisons to Dylan in his career: his lyrics; the unusual timbre of his voice; his gently strummed, chiming guitar. All of the necessary ingredients are here, though on his latest, Windfall, vocally he sounds surprisingly like Jakob Dylan (which, let’s face it: Bob sings like a rusting hinge).

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Music Review: Moon Duo, Shadow Of The Sun

By Less Lee Moore

Although they’ve been releasing music since 2009, I only became turned on to Moon Duo recently. Their fetching single “Animal,” and its hilarious video, quickly won me over. Yet Shadow Of The Sun opens with the minimalist, psychedelic wash of “Wilding,” full of Hammond organs and tambourines. The jewel-toned guitars throughout add a bit of recklessness to an otherwise fairly straightforward drone.

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Music Review: Marilyn Manson, The Pale Emperor

By Less Lee Moore

For many, Marilyn Manson is synonymous with the ’90s, even though he has continued to make music well into this new millennium. That’s been both a blessing (he redefined “shock rock” on his own terms) and a curse (he hasn’t had a hit single since 1998 and his record sales have decreased with each subsequent release). Confession time: I lost interest in him not long after Mechanical Animals so I had some homework to do before writing this review of The Pale Emperor, his ninth studio album.

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Blu-Ray Review: Poker Night

By Brad Henderson

Who the hell approves artwork for DVDs and Blu-rays for XLrator Media? I will slap the shit out of them for slapping together this bullshit for Poker Night.

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Blu-Ray Review: Track The Man Down

By Brad Henderson

It’s funny how simple movies were back in the day. That’s not a bad thing. It seems these films relied more on acting and cinematography rather than some intricate plot. Lately I’ve been checking out a lot of Olive Films releases and been pleasantly surprised with what I’ve been seeing.

Last night I checked out a very low-key crime drama, Track The Man Down. As I said in the beginning, some of the films from this era have basic plots and focus more on the look and performances; Track The Man Down is a perfect example of this. A group of men rob a dog track and one of the gang members holds onto the cache of cash. Once they figure out the cops are onto them they split, leaving the cash with one of the gang member’s girlfriends. From there the story unfolds more, giving us little surprises along the way.

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