Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

By Chelsea Spear

Photo © Mark Ostow

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Mark Sandman cut a wide swath through the Boston music scene. His first band, Treat Her Right, scored a local radio hit with the deadpan, eerie single “I Think She Likes Me.” The various bands with whom Sandman played—most notably Supergroup, Candybar, and Morphine—played two sets a night at the shoebox-shaped bar Plough and Stars. Even as Morphine ascended to a renowned trio with a devoted following, Sandman could be found playing at the annual Central Square World’s Fair, talking with elementary school classes about his handmade musical instruments, converting his loft apartment into a recording studio, or just hanging out in the back booth at the Middle East nightclub. His sudden, tragic death in Italy in 1999 left a huge hole, both in the music world where he made his mark, and within the Boston arts community. (more…)

Movie Review: Red Lights

By Less Lee Moore

This review also appears on The CillianSite.com.

At its most basic level, Red Lights is about two paranormal investigators who debunk cases of alleged psychic phenomena. Yet what the movie is really about is something more: Faith, and whether or not that faith can be shaken.

Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Margaret Matheson, a psychologist who’s built her career on not just shaking, but also shattering, the faith of those who believe in the paranormal or supernatural. Cillian Murphy is her assistant, Tom Buckley, a physicist who in Matheson’s view is brilliant enough to be doing something more with his life than helping her. Early on in the film, Matheson asks Buckley why he stays with her. He doesn’t answer. Finding out the answer is part of what makes Red Lights so engaging.

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Keep The Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat

By Danny R. Phillips

Shout! Factory announced recently that they would be re-issuing the entire catalog of material record by English ska/toasting masters The English Beat. Included in this is every album (that’s three studio albums and two of bonus materials) and a CD/DVD of the band playing the US Festival in May of 1983.

That much material could be a lot to swallow by anyone other then the most fanatical and hardcore of English Beat devotees. Well, for those in the world who do not want to dish out $34 for the box set (that is still a killer deal), Shout! Factory will be releasing a concise greatest hits package, Keep the Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat, as a complement to the five-disc wonder. (more…)

The Hives, Lex Hives

By Julie Finley

What can be said about The Hives that hasn’t already been said? If you are reading this, this is probably not the first time you’ve ever heard of them—and it won’t be the last! If you like them at all, you pretty much know what you’re in for, and what you’re in for is FUN! The word “fun” describes The Hives very accurately (much more so than that lame band actually known as Fun). They aren’t a band that you listen to for technical or lyrical prowess (and I’m not discrediting their musicianship or lyrics by saying that, either). The Hives are a band that you like because they achieve the goal of making the listener happy! The Hives aren’t a band you sit around listening to whilst brooding, because if you are brooding whilst listening to The Hives, you need many MANY years of therapy!

With that said, how does The Hives latest release, Lex Hives, measure up? I would have to say extremely well, and on par with what you’ve come to expect from them. Keeping up their formula without succumbing to industry pressure to change is challenging, but the only thing they’ve changed is their attire.
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Ty Segall Band, Slaughterhouse

By Less Lee Moore

If you haven’t yet heard of Ty Segall that will probably change very soon. The twentysomething California native has been exceptionally busy for the last seven years, recording and playing with a slew of bands like Epsilons, Party Fowl, The Traditional Fools, and The Perverts, not to mention stuff released under his own name as well as with White Fence. This prolific output, along with his age, garage-rock influences, and connection to Goner Records might remind you of another overachieving young musician.

When asked about being “the next Jay Reatard” in interviews, Segall admits he considers it a huge compliment. However, Slaughterhouse, the debut recording of Segall and his touring band, should firmly establish him as a musical force in his own right.

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DIIV, Oshin

By Less Lee Moore

Iona: “Why can’t we start old and get younger? I envy you. I really envy you!”
Andie: “Iona, you’re gonna OD on nostalgia.”
—Pretty In Pink, 1986

“Shoegaze” is an overused buzzword these days, with a number of press releases touting bands as such, and in the process revealing that they don’t seem to understand what the word actually means. Although I haven’t yet seen the word applied to DIIV, the newest musical incarnation of Beach Fossils guitarist Zachary Cole Smith, it’s beyond appropriate.

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Jesca Hoop, The House That Jack Built

By Less Lee Moore

It’s hard to believe The House That Jack Built is Jesca Hoop‘s third proper album. Her last full-length (the excellent Hunting My Dress, reviewed here) came out three years ago, so the artistic growth she demonstrates here is nothing short of astonishing. The mostly acoustic, low-key 2011 EP Snowglobe only hints at the magnificent song craft displayed on The House That Jack Built. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I first heard it and I want to listen to it over and over again.

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Harry Howard & the Near Death Experience, Near Death Experience

By Julie Finley

If you have never heard of Harry Howard, here is a quick history lesson. Harry hails from Melbourne Australia; he’s the younger brother of the late, great Rowland S. Howard, and is a musician in his own right. He’s had tenure in several bands—most notably Crime & the City Solution and These Immortal Souls—was a brief member in the revolving door of miscreants known as The Birthday Party, and a touring member of Shotgun Wedding (one of the many Lydia Lunch-fronted entourages). All of the aforementioned acts were always along side his brother Rowland, and always as a bassist. Harry was also the lead guitarist of Melbourne-based Pink Stainless Tail for a number of years, and strangely enough, is linked to the electronic act Cut Copy.

Harry Howard is a prominent member of the music scene that has emerged from Melbourne since the 1970s, but hasn’t ever really had the spotlight. Although he may be linked to many musicians, putting out a record is easier said than done. Life happens, and in Harry’s case, Death, and Near Death Experiences happen, too!
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Return Of The Phantom 45: Robyn Hitchcock and KT Tunstall, “There Goes The Ice”

By Cait Brennan

The delightful Robyn Hitchcock is back with two new (and free) songs, “There Goes The Ice” and “Twitch 4 Sam Surfer”—the latest in Hitchcock’s series of “Phantom 45” offerings, and a harbinger of good things to come.

A spare, melancholy duet with Hitchcock and KT Tunstall, “There Goes The Ice” turns George Harrison’s Beatles classic “Here Comes The Sun” on its head, written by Hitchcock as the Arctic ice sheet literally went to pieces around him.

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Silver Jews, Early Times

By Emily Carney

Indie rock was pure, escapist fun in the early- to mid-1990s. I lived in a fairly chaotic household in South Florida and would often lock myself in my room to enjoy whatever Pavement and Sebadoh had to offer. While I didn’t idolize the bands’ personnel (I don’t think anyone should be idolized, because it undermines his or her cultural legacy), records like Slanted and Enchanted and III definitely made the time more than bearable. The music still leaves deep personal resonances for me. Yes, I had the iconic Pavement “Sunny Side Up!” T-shirt. Through Pavement, I discovered Silver Jews around 1993.
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