Boom! Studios, a smaller big comic book publisher, launched their new Boom! Kids line earlier this year, which features comics based on the Disney-owned properties Pixar and The Muppets. Time will tell if this arrangement lasts now that Disney owns Marvel. Hopefully nothing will happen that affects the Muppet Show comics that cartoonist Roger Langridge […]
review
Posted inArts + Music
Cousins
Aaron Mangle has been playing solo under the name A Helpful Diagram for a couple years, but this summer he picked up a band and became Cousins. While the scrappy, low-fi aesthetic of A Helpful Diagram had its charms, Mangle’s songs develop into something more when fleshed out with a full band, foggy indie-rock with […]
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Arctic Monkeys
I wish I hadn’t read that Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) produced this album. It’s all I can hear. Every little hook, the guitar tone, even the nonchalance of the singing. Homme might as well have moved to Sheffield long enough to adopt the accent and started a new band. Actually…what has Queens […]
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Black Diamond Bay
When a friend first played me The Dears in the summer of 2000, I liked them but wanted everything to sound more like Radiohead’s OK Computer. This is the album I should have had that summer, which is not to say it’s dated, but rather a little bit Dears, a little bit haunting, a little […]
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Under This Unbroken Sky, Shandi Mitchell (Viking Canada)
In Depression-era northern Alberta, Theo Mykolayenko returns to the family homestead an almost-broken man. He was imprisoned for breaking bureaucratic regulations regarding his own wheat. (He’d similarly suffered under the Ukraine’s Stalinist regime.) Shandi Mitchell, a screenwriter and producer (see story on page 32), describes Theo’s slow movements, the family’s uneasy readjustment, with trimmed, precise […]
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Dinah Thorpe
Toronto’s Dinah Thorpe understands the line between fact and fiction. Her double disc Truths and Other Stories straddles this divide. Produced, mixed and mastered by the artist, Thorpe layers her ethereal vocals over club-worthy beats. (Imagine Dido if she were a dyke.) Academically minded, much of Thorpe’s material dives into queer theory and gender politics. […]
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Not-so Good Dick
Indie movie Good Dick (set in a video store? Check! Super-edgy title? Meh. Dick and Pecker did it adjective-free) starts by exploring a question most current/former video-store employees can relate to: what’s the best way to interact with porn-renters? Do you avoid eye contact? Amp up the politeness? Or, like Good Dick‘s hero (Jason Ritter), […]
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Tedious, predictable, pretty good
Type-A college grad Ryden (Alexis Bledel) comes up short in the job market, moves back in with her parents and generally learns that life and relationships and stuff are really hard. It’s pretty tedious and predictable, I know, but Post Grad has the good sense to fill out its wan storyline with zany and droll […]
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Jessica Rhaye
New Brunswick’s darling Jessica Rhaye could be the next Jewel. With catchy hooks and pop sensibility, her latest album, Good Things, is an ode to what could be. “Shining Star” reminds listeners to look up and take in the night sky, though it’s Rhaye who shines on “Rose Coloured Glasses.” Fans of Nina Gordon’s solo […]
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Jenocide
Although this six-song EP was named after Jen Clarke’s bicycle accident (hence the bruising and the healing power of hair accessories), it perfectly sums up Jenocide: even as that throbbing electro-thrash pop socks a mighty punch, you go along for the ride, mesmerized by the glitter. Clarke struts, preens and shouts like a gentler cousin […]
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Modest Mouse
This assemblage of b-sides from Modest Mouse’s last two studio LPs (2004’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News and 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) sounds the part. Songs like opener “Satellite Skin” and “Autumn Beds,” while pleasant, are bland and unmemorable. But then there’s showstopper “King Rat,” which opens […]
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Tyvek
Anyone still wondering what all the buzz about garage rock is lately needs look no further than this record. After releasing a series of EPs and CD-Rs in its hometown of Detroit, Tyvek has built up a solid fan base across North America and Europe before its first full-length came out. This self-titled effort does […]
