// Category Archive for: Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: Mr. Jones

By Brad Henderson

As we all know and as I’ve said before: found footage movies usually get an eye roll, which you can hear miles away when those films are announced. Sure, people claim this way of telling a story is just a gimmick, but that is incorrect. I give this method of storytelling praise if it is executed without being used as one. Using found footage to tell a story is special to me in many ways. Mostly it’s because these stories are told from a person’s point of view, which can make something more terrifying and real. That doesn’t happen in all cases, of course, and is not the case with Mr. Jones.

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Blu-Ray Review: Sleepaway Camp

By Brad Henderson

Scream Factory has blessed us with the Blu-Ray of another slasher from the ’80s. Sleepaway Camp is probably the most spoiled horror film to date. I imagine there are people who still haven’t seen it, so I will keep this spoiler free. I don’t agree with the idea that “it’s been out for X amount of years” because we all miss shit. Even I have a number of popular films I haven’t seen yet and I consider myself a huge film buff. We all have those unseen movies and we will eventually get to them.

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Music Review: Swans, To Be Kind

By Jeffery X Martin

I have an irrational fear of Swans leader Michael Gira. I imagine him striding through the desert at sunset, taking impossibly long steps, heat shimmering from him in mirage waves, impossible to look at directly. He holds out his arms and silently begins to absorb the encroaching darkness, holding it somewhere deep within himself, perhaps in the fetid abyss he calls a “heart.” He moves through the world like the Walking Man and, in my mind, he sounds like Werner Herzog when he speaks.

To Be Kind, the third album from Swans since their reformation in 2010, does nothing to alter that vision.

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Canadian Music Week Film Fest Review: Jimi: All Is By My Side

By Less Lee Moore

When Jimi Hendrix’s estate refused permission for writer/director John Ridley to use any of Hendrix’s songs in his movie, it seemed like the film was doomed. Yet, while watching Jimi: All Is By My Side, the lack of original Hendrix music seems nearly irrelevant. Like Todd Haynes did with Velvet Goldmine, his loosely-based-on-David Bowie love letter to glam rock, Ridley manages to make it work. Without the specter of “the hits” looming over the film, All Is By My Side plays like a stadium-filling band performing deep cuts in a tiny club. It’s more snapshots and impressions than a by-the-numbers biography.

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Music Review: St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Half The City

By Melissa Bratcher

St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ frontman Paul Janeway (St. Paul himself) was raised Pentecostal and studied to be a preacher. Upon hearing Half The City, one can only say, “Thank God it didn’t pan out.” Paul Janeway has the kind of voice that you’ll read all kinds of hype about, and for once, that hype is true. The man sings like the second coming of Otis Redding and has a killer band to back him up. Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, St. Paul & The Broken Bones tread the same sort of ground as Alabama Shakes (and Half The City is, in fact, produced by Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner): soulful and bluesy, but with the added bonus of an amazing horn section.

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DVD Review: Suzanne Vega Live: Solitude Standing

By Jeffery X Martin

The problem with being a hardcore fan of any artist is the constant desire for more. We want new songs. We want new versions of new songs. We want a tour. We want new videos. We want it all, and we want it now, sooner if possible.

The new Suzanne Vega concert DVD, a show from Rome filmed in 2003, is great for those who haven’t had the chance to see her live. It’s a stripped-down affair, with Vega on acoustic guitar and vocals, Mike Visceglia on bass, and a translator, Valerio Piccolo. It has the earmarks of a small, intimate show. We would have a better sense of that, if we were ever shown the audience outside of some silhouette shots.

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Music Review: Various Artists, South Side Story Vol. 23

By Less Lee Moore

It’s always a challenge to step out of your comfort zone.

Although I certainly enjoy my share of R&B and Soul music, I would never claim to be an expert. This made Numero Group’s soul compilation South Side Story Vol. 23 all the more interesting, especially with the release’s lack of liner notes. A PR rep referred to it as a “cool mix tape,” and that’s an apt description. Mix tapes were always a labor of love, with homemade artwork and only the band names and song titles included. South Side Story is definitely a labor of love for the Chicago-based label who included relative unknowns in the soul genre, at least unknown to those outside of the Chicago area. This required a lot of digging on the Internet, and unsurprisingly, there was not a wealth of information found, although thanks to soul fanatics and collectors, I managed to find some information on each performer included.

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Blu-Ray Review: Final Exam

By Brad Henderson

Final Exam is one of the slashers that got me into the subgenre. I first came across this film when I was young because I set out to watch every slasher ever made. I still haven’t accomplished that task, but I’m well ahead of the game. Final Exam has always and will forever be in my Top 10 favorite slasher films of all time.

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DVD Review: Scream Park

By Brad Henderson

It seems like there are four to five low-budget horror films hitting DVD every week lately, and most of them are not very good. I admire the work and effort that the individuals put into these projects, but at the end of the day you have to ask: Is the film good? Unfortunately, the answer is “no” the majority of the time, but we do get some kickass ones like Scream Park.

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Music Review: Denney And The Jets, Mexican Coke

By Melissa Bratcher

There’s an undercurrent of sleaziness running through Denney And The Jets’ debut album, Mexican Coke. Frontman Chris Denney’s bio reads like a cautionary young adult novel: stealing pills from his grandma at nine, smoking two packs a day, and pot at thirteen. On Mexican Coke, Denney writes and sings about these experiences (as well as meth, beauty queens, and the seamy underbelly of society) and is backed by a band that has listened to more than a few Stones records.

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