Shelly Campbell Blue Ridge Reveille(Nettwerk)Campbell has crafted a delightful homespun masterpiece! Recorded in her home, the record is a soothing laidback trip through rural Americana. Touches of Victoria Williams, Son Volt, Kathleen Edwards and The Be Good Tanyas make this record a heads and shoulders release for best alt-country so far this year. Campbell is […]
Trevor MacLaren
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Pretty Girls Make Graves
Published October 09, 2003. Pretty Girls Make Graves The New Romance (Matador) Seattle’s Pretty Girls Make Graves became critic’s darlings with the amazing full-length debut Good Health, but their sophomore record is all the better. The New Romance is track after track of emotional punch that serves both the power of the music and the […]
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The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
The Killing of a Chinese BookieDirected by: John Cassavetes (Criterion Collection)John Cassavetes was one of the first actors (The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary’s Baby) to move away from the Hollywood mainstream and direct his own self-financed independent features. With his debut Shadows he helped to build the foundation of underground cinema, and in 1974 A Woman […]
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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce SpringsteenMagicSonyMagic may not be the rock comeback everyone hoped for. But an older and more embittered Springsteen not only proves he can still write great rockers, he proves he can do it while writing protest songs. The Boss isn’t the angst-ridden youth of 30 years ago, but Magic shows his skills are still as […]
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Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me DeadlyMistly MedleyAlien8 RecordingsYet another Montreal band heavily indebted to post-punk, Kiss Me Deadly is noisier than rival The Arcade Fire. Unfortunately, they lack a single as good or catchy as Fire’s “Rebellion,” but that doesn’t mean they suck. Quite the opposite: Misty Medley is a college radio classic in the making. There is […]
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The Gurus
The GurusThe Gurus(Rainbow Quartz)The Gurus are well-versed in 1960s-era psychedelic pop, owing much to the ’66-’68 period of The Beatles with a little of the San Francisco scene thrown in. Bands with this sound have flooded the market since its birth, so it is easy to blow them off. But The Gurus’ songs are catchy […]
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Elvis Costello with The Metropole Orkest
Elvis Costello with The Metropole OrkestMy Flame Burns Blue(Universal)This disc continues in the vein of Piano Jazz, but My Flame Burns Blue isn’t a throwaway, fans-only release. Instead, it’s a genius work recorded live in 2004 with jazz and string orchestra Metropole Orkest. Costello gets to rework much of his back catalogue with new arrangements […]
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Shout Out Louds
Published December 08, 2005. Shout Out Louds Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (Capitol) Just simply put, a great pop record that utilizes ’60s pop mixed with ’80s and ’90s indie pop. A bit of new wave injected with garage rock and Brian Wilson’s chamber opuses. Shout Out Louds write some of the best and most original […]
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Aimee Mann
Aimee MannThe Forgotten Arm(Superego)Aimee Mann invades husband Michael Penn’s Beatles collection and comes out with her best disc since Bachelor No.2. The record is based on a song cycle concept about an addict boxer returning from Vietnam. Surprisingly enough, the idea works, though many of the tracks can stand on their own as well. This […]
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Harry Connick Jr.
Published September 18, 2003. Harry Connick Jr. Other Hours (Marsalis/Rounder) Harry drops the Sinatra wanna-be act and pulls together an instrumental jazz record. Who knew at the heart of Connick were Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell? Other Hours is based around small-combo swing, but the band lifts off in various directions in their solos, making […]
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Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit)
Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit)Directed by: Volker Schlöndorff (Kino Video)With the recent events in Israel and Lebanon, Volker Schlöndorff’s 1981 film feels quite fitting. The great German actor Bruno Ganz (Downfall) plays a journalist who heads to Lebanon on assignment while his marriage dissolves back in Hamburg. Of course the film tries to connect the […]
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The Cliks
The CliksSnakehouse(Warner)Snakehouse tries to take rock to a more primitive time. Lots of crunch and pulsating beats that recall the days before every rock band began to sound like either shitty metal (Nickelback) or punk-pop (Green Day). The sound owes a lot to Chrissie Hynde and the classic first two Pretenders records. But it’s a […]
