DVD Review: The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

You know that moment when you first start getting a hangnail? You know you should get the clippers and cut it off before it becomes a real hassle, but instead, you play with it. You twist it around, push it back into the already ruptured skin, or pull on it. Sometimes, you can make it bleed. It hurts. You know you should stop. You don’t even understand why you’re putting yourself through that pain. But you keep doing it because part of you, a dark nameless section of your psyche, enjoys it. It loves the pain. It needs the humiliation.

If you’re a fan of that level of masochism, you’ll have a great time with The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1. Low-budget horror can be a wonderful thing. Even some zero-budget stuff can be all right. But there are some movies that are not watched as much as they are gawked at, where wretched ineptitude is the real star of the show and it hurts.

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Music Review: Iron & Wine, Archive Series Volume No. 1

By Melissa Bratcher

Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam does what he does exquisitely well. For over a decade, Beam has been creating hushed, intimate acoustic songs of love and domesticity and family, sepia-tinted nostalgia for right now.

The songs that make up Iron & Wine’s new Archive Series Volume No. 1 are pulled from tapes that Beam made before he was Iron & Wine, prior to the release of 2002’s The Creek Drank The Cradle. These songs were made only to be heard by his family and make up what feels like a diary of sorts, accompanied by his acoustic guitar. They are songs full of striking imagery, like in “The Wind Is Low,” a paean to a family of three “including the little one”: “We sail in the smallest boat/sleep just when the wind is low.”

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Music Review: Dan Deacon, Gliss Riffer

By Melissa Bratcher

Electronic collage artist Dan Deacon has returned with another eclectic offering in the very appropriately titled Gliss Riffer. A play on the the word glissando (sliding from one note to another) and riff (a repeated motif in a piece), Gliss Riffer is full of swooping keyboards and repeated movements, disembodied voices and dance-ready rhythms. It’s a heady mix.

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Music Review: A Place To Bury Strangers, Transfixiation

By Less Lee Moore

How I went this long without hearing A Place To Bury Strangers is an embarrassing mystery. To rectify my mistake, I spent a lot of hours delving into their discography before writing this review. Alternating between brooding and buoyant shoegaze, this New York trio has elevated feedback to an art form. Although they’re frequently compared favorably (and appropriately) to The Jesus And Mary Chain, over the course of their three previous albums they’ve also managed to incorporate influences such as Tones On Tail, Love & Rockets, and The Church. And that’s what makes Transfixiation such a frustrating listen.

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Music Review: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, See The Fire

By Less Lee Moore

Back in 1986, I recorded Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s “Walking On Your Hands” from WTUL college radio in New Orleans. It was the only track I’d ever heard from this Leeds band, but one I listened to frequently. For whatever reason, I never managed to delve further into the band’s discography until now. Cherry Red Records’ recent three-disc release of See The Fire (Albums, Singles and BBC Recordings 1982 – 1987) is a wonderful introduction to a band that has a singular sound but doesn’t fit into any single musical category.

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Blu-Ray Review: V/H/S: Viral

By Brad Henderson

The V/H/S series is something I’ve loved and hated at the same time. I say that with the utmost respect; I’m not trying to be an asshole. When the first installment was released I was fucking stoked. Between the filmmakers involved and the trailer that was released, I couldn’t wait until the day I saw it. I remember very vividly renting it at midnight on VOD and being overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. I’ve actually felt this way with every entry and that’s because all the installments are 50/50 for me.

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Music Review: Todd Rundgren, At The BBC 1972 – 1982

By Jeffery X Martin

There’s something about performing at the British Broadcasting Company that brings out the best in musicians. Perhaps it’s because the BBC is such a venerable institution that the very idea of screwing up there is abhorrent to entertainers. It certainly brought out the best in Todd Rundgren and his band, Utopia, as is evidenced by the new four-disc set from Cherry Red, Todd Rundgren at the BBC 1972 – 1982.

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Music Review: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, So Delicious

By Melissa Bratcher

For a trio, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band sure do make a lot of noise. I listened to their latest, So Delicious, without knowing a thing about them, and assumed that there had to be at least six people in the Big Damn Band. It’s called The Big Damn Band, after all. And they’re loud. Looking at their bio, though, I was stunned to realize that the band is the Reverend Peyton, a Delta-style guitarist who sings; Breezy Peyton, who plays washboard and supplies backing vocals; and drummer Ben Bussell.

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Music Review: Steve Earle And The Dukes, Terraplane

By Melissa Bratcher

Steve Earle has always had a genius gift for lyrics that relate the life of the working man, the wronged person, and the misfits of the world. On his latest album, Terraplane, he again explores those characters and inhabits them so deeply that taken as a whole, the album is like a collection of fully realized short stories with accompanying soundtracks.

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Music Review: Jeff Austin, The Simple Truth

By Melissa Bratcher

The Simple Truth, the debut album of Jeff Austin, former Yonder Mountain String Band mandolin king, is an engaging trip through Austin’s musical influences and passions: there’s straight bluegrass, soaring power pop, edgy noise experimentation, and some serious funk. The wonderful thing is every one of those songs works deliciously. There’s not a false moment or note on The Simple Truth. It’s an album made by someone who seems to be really enjoying his work, and it shows. (Or sounds. Hears?)

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