Colorado-based Big Chris comes at us with Unforgiven – a straightforward hardcore hip-hop album with its share of fronting and more than its share of backing vocal divas. No doubt, Big Chris is a tough MF, but a lot of his lyrics are a rhyming revision of so much that’s been said in hustler-thug rap […]
Okay. Corrina Repp has a beautiful voice. Unfortunately, she doesn’t use that notion to her advantage. It’s Only the Future, Repp’s release on Portland-based Hush Records, is a literal drag. Most of the 10 tracks last under four minutes, but they feel much longer, clinging to life as they move slowly along. Repp’s voice is […]
These days, Metal Blade Records is signing a lot of Swedish death metal bands, and In Battle fits the bill. Formed in 1996, In Battle toured extensively in Europe and with their November 2004 release Welcome to the Battlefield, In Battle plans to dominate as many venues as possible.
With the volume low, John E. Vistic sounds like Nick Cave, but as you turn it up, he gets more countrified, which is odd, since he’s Britain’s answer to the alt-country craze. Vistic sounds more Tennessee than London, but with a splash of the bayou and a dollop of Rolling Stones. This sampler EP contains […]
Kaffeine Buzz has officially hit the international radar, and even if the French are mad at us for re-electing Bush, they want our opinion on this band. Though it may have been shipped out before November 2… Paris’s one for jude is alternately folky and dancy, but persistently haunting. I guess you’d call them a […]
To be honest, the title track of Misanthropos is hard to sit through. Yeah it’s complicated and full of changes, but there’s just no musical substance or groove. Now going on with the rest of the disc, I had a new appreciation for Paria. The songs are musically interesting, the hardest of hardcore mixed with […]
Closer (2004, Mike Nichols) Closer will break your heart and make you wonder about love. More accurately, Natalie Portman will break your heart, and Clive Owen will make you wonder about love. Those two easily steal this movie from top-billed Julia Roberts (Anna) and Jude Law (Dan), which is not to say that either of […]
Finding Neverland (2004, Marc Forster) Johnny Depp is incapable of a bad performance, and thankfully, he’s starting to get the accolades he deserves. In a year that includes Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, he is also unlikely to win an Oscar for the second year in a row, but he’s still stellar as usual. Finding […]
Kinsey (2004, Bill Condon) The timing for this movie couldn’t be better. As America drifts back into the clutches of the “moral values” crew, we could all use a dose of the biologist who tried to strip sex down to its basics and in doing so, free Americans from the idea of “normal.” Liam Neeson […]
Tarnation (2003, Jonathan Caouette) The New York Times has accused Jonathan Caouette of creating a new genre of filmmaking with Tarnation, his debut film, put together on iMovie (a free Macintosh program) from footage he’d compiled from the age of 11. Whether it’s a new genre or simply a different form of documentary, Tarnation is […]
