You know what’s easy to love? A two-person band. Do you know what band you’re about to love? Hymn for Her, a nomadic pair who make their home in a ’61 Bambi Airstream trailer (with their daughter) and make the kind of music you can crunch away the miles to.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Hymn For Her, Drive Til U Die’
The show’s creators do a great job of keeping to the book with this episode. While I typically enjoy a good healthy dose of political intrigue, having read the book is becoming a little bit of a curse as I sit through the build-up of this season’s action. It’s a necessary evil, however, as there is much that has to take place both on screen and behind the scenes to build to the crescendo that’s coming.
Continue reading ‘TV Review: Outlander S2 E04, “La Dame Blanche”’
By Tyler Hodg
Break out your hairspray, headbands, and shoulder pads: the 1980s are back thanks to Wyatt Blair. His new album, Point of No Return, is a love letter to arena-style glam rock that not only celebrates the music of the past, but also makes it cool again. Now that’s radical!
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Wyatt Blair, Point of No Return’
On the nature vs. nurture question, music so often comes down to nurture. It’s a time and place thing, colored by experiences and environments. On Jon Reynolds’s new EP, Generation, Love, Reynolds explores racism, sexism, and gender roles, specifically in the American South. Having recently moved to Tennessee, Reynolds found himself wrestling with the intrinsic, embedded prejudices (including his own) and has taken these things and molded them into a quartet of 1950s-flavored, hooky pop treats.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Jon Reynolds, Generation, Love’
By Hanna
The 20-year anniversary of Tiny Tim’s death continues with an absolute treat for fans in the form of Tiny Tim’s America. This release is special because it’s comprised of new material, from recordings Tiny made in 1974 when he was in between recording contracts. Using this demo tape, a number of songs were chosen to compile a vinyl album (plus mp3 download). The original entire demo recording is also included on the mp3 download.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Tiny Tim, Tiny Tim’s America’
Though I’d always been a fan of “Dream Police” and “She’s Tight,” it wasn’t until 1993 that I fully embraced the many pleasures Cheap Trick had to offer. Checking the liner notes on their 1978 album Heaven Tonight revealed that amongst the album’s many fantastic tracks was a cover by someone named Roy Wood. “Who the hell was Roy Wood?” was my first thought and my second was “This song is incredible!” As it turned out Wood was the main songwriter for British band The Move, who’d found much success in the late 1960s and was a big influence on Cheap Trick’s musical style.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: The Move, Move and Shazam (Reissues)’
By Tim Murr
“There’s a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out”
—Lou Reed
I haven’t had many mornings this year where I didn’t wake up with the Alice Cooper lyrics “Enough’s enough’s enough/this year’s been really, really tough” in my head. 2016 has seen many of our heroes go to the grave and in February I lost my friend Jason “Jase” Gollihar, who I’ve known since I was eleven years old. Couple those losses with numerous little personal tragedies, a couple of huge ones (that have just recently started correcting themselves), and an election year that I’m still trying to get a mental grip on… Yeah, this year’s been really, really tough.
Continue reading ‘Waxing Nostalgic: Lou Reed, Magic and Loss’
By Tyler Hodg
Who needs time machines when throwback bands like Masked Intruder exist? The band’s latest effort, an EP titled Love and Other Crimes, sounds like a direct callback to pop-punk’s heyday in the early 2000s, but perhaps a little too much. Although still a fun listen, a lack of originality removes much-needed substance from the album.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Masked Intruder, Love and Other Crimes’
By Brian Baker
Let me level with you, I’m not particularly keen on Star Trek.
That’s not to say I don’t like it, or dislike it. Science fiction is just not my milieu when it comes to films. All that diplomacy between antagonistic alien species and the Federation of Planets has never been an impetus to get me to the theater. I also don’t play favorites. That means I’m not into Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica, either.
The lure of a colourful mask, high-flying and fast-paced energy, and over-the-top characters can’t be denied, even among non-fans of pro wrestling. Lucha libre, Mexico’s own brand of pro wrestling, is an intrinsic part of Mexican culture, and Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz’s documentary Lucha Mexico puts this phenomenon on full display, warts and all.