Music Review: Peeling, Rats In Paradise

By Tim Murr

Singer/guitarist Annabelle Lee (ex-Mexican Slang) describes Peeling’s debut EP, Rats In Paradise, as being “about shedding past traumas, transcending pain and finding a way out,” she says. “It’s too easy to become disillusioned; I want to create catharsis and release.” Well, congratulations on succeeding. Rats In Paradise is a wonderfully realized collection. The four tracks, “Magic Eye,” “Leisure Life,” “In The Sun,” and “Wet Nurse” feel very similar to Las Vegas Story-era Gun Club. Even Lee’s vocals remind me of Jeffery Lee Pierce at his most reserved.
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Blu-Ray Review: Tenebre

By Tim Murr

Tenebre is Italian horror master Dario Argento’s return to the genre he helped create with a style and vicious edge rarely equaled even by himself. In it, American thriller author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) steps off the plane in Italy and into a mystery straight out of one of his own books, literally. A killer is using passages from his newest book, Tenebre, to commit vicious murders and apparently attempting to impress Neal by sending him clues after each murder. In classic Giallo style Neal becomes an amateur detective trying to solve the murders himself.
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Retro Review: Night Of The Demons

By Tim Murr

As we’re still unpacking in our new house, I’m already brainstorming a little Halloween party, writing a treatment for a short film, and getting the itch to watch as many seasonally themed horror flicks as possible. I already started with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a favorite since middle school, and last night settled in with Night Of The Demons. Starring Cathy Podewell, Linnea Quigley, and Mimi Kinkade, NOTD is the perfect Halloween rollercoaster flick.
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Music Review: Opeth, Sorceress

By Tim Murr

Opeth began challenging the parameters of death metal in the 1995 debut Orchid. Mixing in clean vocals, piano, and acoustic instruments, the band was destined to stand out. Frequent lineup changes occurred, leaving Mikael Åkerfeldt the only constant member. These days, the death metal connection seems tenuous at best, given the greater prog rock direction Opeth has taken. And that’s fine.
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Music Review: Melvins, Basses Loaded

By Tim Murr

Aberdeen’s Melvins have been around since 1983 and remain one of America’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands. That’s not hyperbole; that’s just a fact. They have released a slew of albums exploring the boundaries of stoner, doom, sludge, and grunge music. King Buzzo and Dale Crover have been the only constant members with several different bass players coming and going. Which brings us to the new album, Basses Loaded.
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Music Review: True Widow, AVVOLGERE

By Tim Murr

When I was two tracks into True Widow’s second album, AVVOLGERE, I said to myself, “Wow, this is everything I love about Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Sex and Bad Moon Rising, but without all the arty filler.” This Texas trio just rolled into my life with the exact kind of album I’ve been wanting for a really long time.
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Music Review: Sumerlands, Sumerlands

By Tim Murr

I hope Philadelphia, PA is super proud of Sumerlands, whose debut album just dropped. Their self-titled LP, released by Relapse Records and also available on the group’s Bandcamp page, is pure metal that hits all the sweet spots. The group does a fantastic job balancing the sounds of classic metal from the 1970s and ‘80s with the technical aesthetics of modern metal. In other words, imagine classic Black Sabbath being produced today.
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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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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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Waxing Nostalgic: Lou Reed, Magic and Loss

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.

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