Friend of the Coast and valedictorian of the Most Likely to Succeed class of 2010 Rich Aucoin dropped s remix bomb this weekend in the form of “Empire State of It,” a mash-up of the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys joint “Empire State of Mind” and his own “It,” from his upcoming (fantastic) new record. Check this shiz […]
Tara Thorne
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Tori Amos
Amos approaches the holiday canon the same as every record she’s made, including this year’s Abnormally Attracted to Sin: with mixed emotions and mad bombast. Bookended by traditionals (“The First Noel,” “Silent Night”), Midwinter Graces feels like a mid-career Amos album, To Venus and Back with bells: it’s serviceable, with high points. Daughter Natashya pops […]
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Talk of the town: best music of 2009
A History OfAction in the North Atlantic (Noyes) High-octane, Maritime-themed math rock? Yes, please. A History Of gets the Halifax music scene right, and finally gives us a full-length record. —LK Black MoorThe Conquering (Diminished Fifth) The stuff of heavy metal legend: surviving a car crash, Black Moor channels death and Kill Em All hooks making you […]
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Precious a hard and worthy effort
This year’s steam-gathering Oscar contender has the grit and guts Slumdog Millionaire lacked—there are no free-falls into shitholes, because you’re already in one. Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a functionally illiterate Harlem teen pregnant with her father’s second child. Her mother (Mo’Nique) is an emotionally and physically abusive terror collecting welfare on Precious and her […]
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Brian Borcherdt: Two Records: Free: Now
One of the keenest musical minds ever to come from this province has released two digital pockets of home recordings available for download here. Get them today and learn the songs in time for Borcherdt‘s Paragon show with Julie Fader tomorrow night.
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Paramore
“The truth never set me free, so I did it myself,” declares Hayley Williams off the top of the outfit’s third LP, a chronicle of its near-breakup last year. Tough and catchy, Brand New Eyes finds emo’s most important band expanding on the hook-laden Riot!, packing in stops and starts, thunderous drumming and ba-ba-bas around […]
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Friday Night Lights: The Third Season
Television’s best drama returned in fighting shape for its third, most affecting year. Like all high school shows, it weathered some cast changes, both exits—Street (Scott Porter) and Smash (Gaius Charles)—and entrances—wunderkind JD McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter) and stage father Joe (DW Moffett). But none of the traffic upset its heart, Tami and Eric Taylor (Connie […]
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Drew and the wheel girls
“I wanted to make a film for so many people,” says Drew Barrymore. “For young girls—growing up, when I felt filmmakers weren’t patronizing me, I felt like I wasn’t alone. I love action, I love comedy, the dynamics of relationships. It’s also a mother-daughter love story, it’s about family. I made it from my heart, […]
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Whip It is fizzy fun
Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is fizzy fun, so much so that new ads are playing up the “Teenagers, yeah!” angle while tossing in a single obligatory shot of a be-helmeted Ellen Page. Whip It follows Bliss (Page) as she secretly comes of age on the roller derby track while running the Texas pageant circuit to […]
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TIFF: The last day
The most unheralded director of women in contemporary cinema is Rodrigo Garcia (just shut your fucking mouth about Scorsese). The Colombian filmmaker, who pays the bills directing HBO shows, has helmed two of the best female ensembles of the past 10 years: Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (Calista Flockhart, Kathy Baker, […]
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TIFF DAY 8: Who’s talking?
Let’s talk about some things. Instead of wondering how Sandra Bullock looks so smooth or when Megan Fox had her boob job or how Blake Lively got her nose did, let’s please mention Jeremy Piven‘s hairline, which was in the middle of his skull during Ellen. Or Steve Carell, whose spray-on hair is awfully low-rent […]
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Jennifer’s Body goes for gutsy
Oscar winner Diablo Cody goes for the gutsy with a ’80s-style horror romp. Megan Fox, right in her tiny wheelhouse, is the titular Jennifer, who’s sacrificed to Satan by emo band Low Shoulder (fronted by Adam “Seth Cohen” Brody!) so the band can hit it big. She becomes a half-demon instead, feeding on boys to […]