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.
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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.
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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).

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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.

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July Comics Rundown with DC, Marvel, and IDW

By E.A. Henson

Let’s take a look at some of my favorite titles from July of this year!
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Music Review: Ryley Walker, Golden Sings That Have Been Sung

By Melissa Bratcher

The Ryley Walker that brought to mind frolicking in sun-dappled fields on his last album, Primrose Green, has vacated those fields. His latest, Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, moves past his love to 1960s and ’70s British folkies (though the occasional field is still dappled in sun) and embraces a more “whole band” approach, throwing in unexpected instrumentation and taking his experimental playing even further. His unbelievable finger-picking is still there, but it’s come with friends this time.

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Podcast: TV or GTFO Episode 7, “Pacific Blue”

On this week’s TV or GTFO, Sachin and Gary review the extremely 1990s “Baywatch on Bikes” series, Pacific Blue. Running from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network (also the home of a similar Baywatch ripoff, Thunder In Paradise), this five-season wonder was retooled more thoroughly than the old Raleigh you’ve had since 1988. Did adding ’90s hunkerino Mario “AC Slater” Lopez increase the quality of this show in any measurable way? Spoiler: No it did not!

Does anyone on this show ever talk or react like a human being? Is there any reason to have a bike unit on a beach when bikes can neither traverse sand nor water? Will TC ever put on a shirt? For the love of Pete, will they ever wrap up a storyline properly? Well grab your helmet, put on your teensy shorts, and hop on your ten-speed for Pacific Blue!

Subscribe to us on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or take a listen right here!

Music Review: The Hollywood Brats, Sick On You: The Album/A Brats Miscellany

By Hanna

The Hollywood Brats are really an anomaly; difficult to place and more difficult to analyze the longer you listen to them. While they don’t quite have the almost intellectual artifice of the New York Dolls and Heavy Metal Kids, they do share the same deep sense of bad taste and irony. The defining characteristics of their music are a tendency to shock and a rather cutting irony, combined with a deliberately simplistic style of music which can be seen as a precursor of punk. For a short space of time they were shouting obscenities into the void of American glam rock, before disbanding in 1974. But right now, they’re having a moment of revival after singer Andrew Matheson’s book came out last year out and he’s been playing again, so it’s a good time to have another look at their actual output.

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Music Review: Stewart Eastham, Dancers In The Mansion

By Tyler Hodg

Stewart Eastham’s latest effort, Dancers in the Mansion, is like a wild night in a Nashville bar: the swinging country music encourages you to hit the dance floor, while occasional somber sounds result in moments of reflection. All that’s missing is a little too much bourbon. Continue reading ‘Music Review: Stewart Eastham, Dancers In The Mansion’

Blu-Ray Review: Easy Rider

By Tim Murr

I was 19 when I saw Easy Rider the first time. I was a punk with a shaved head and had a generally negative attitude towards the world at large. I think I spent most of my time watching Dennis Hopper’s directorial debut with my arms crossed, not bored, but waiting to see what was supposedly so great about this “classic.” Though I found many facets of 1960s history fascinating, I assumed Easy Rider was just some hippy flick which wouldn’t resonate with me or my generation.

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