When you’re living with the repercussions of baby boomer excess, it’s pretty hard to get excited for their halcyon nostalgia, which makes Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock hard to connect to in a meaningful way. If you are about to shoulder a generation’s enormous health care costs as they wither, do you really want to revel […]
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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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Shorts puts trust in kids
With the G-rated comedy Shorts, James Spader has yet another role that he can finally show to his mother. With deadpan wickedness, he commits himself to his role as the shifty chief of the Black Box Company, an electronics manufacturer that produces something that looks like a cross between a Blackberry and a Rubik’s Cube. […]
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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 […]
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Fall music review
September Releases York Redoubt, s/t (Noyes/Hot Money) After a coast-to-coast summer tour, including a coveted slot at Calgary’s Sled Island Festival, York Redoubt releases its self-titled full-length. Recorded by uber-engineers Charles Austin and Dave Ewenson, this fantastic album is full of sonic surprises, melding noise, harmonies and ragged lo-fi goodness. September 5 at The Seahorse […]
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Mad Men reborn
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) may have returned home at the end of season two, but judging from the opening scene of season three—a theatrical reenactment of Draper imagining his conception and birth—he’s no less troubled. And, as we learn when he and darling Sal (Bryan Batt) take a business trip together, Draper still can’t resist […]
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Sunset Rubdown
Wolf Parade should call it quits (and not just because the band's last album was a dud). But Spencer Krug should devote all his energy to Sunset Rubdown—everything this band (which includes members of Pony Up! and Miracle Fortress) does kicks ass. Especially Dragonslayer, its third full-length, which even surpasses the critically acclaimed Random Spirit […]
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The Cliks
With heavy-rock riffs and Lucas Silveira’s cocksure vocals, The Cliks are a good kind of dirty. The title track opens with a surf-style riff and climbing bass notes. Relationships are tough, especially on the road —“Not Your Boy” alludes to a flailing love affair. “Henry,” “We Are Wolverines” and “Career Suicide” kick up the rock […]
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Amanda Blank
We all know how humid it’s been, but damn, this album is like, all hot and shit. Nestled between Lil’ Kim and Peaches on the raunchy female MC spectrum, Blank’s I Love You is a summer party album oozing with sex appeal. Backed by reigning electro/hip-hop kings Diplo & Switch (Santigold, MIA), help from Spankrock’s […]
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Gomorrah
This film follows five lives knotted up in the power-dynamics and displays of power put on by the Camorra, the mafia in contemporary Naples. As with Traffic, The Departed (Martin Scorcese executive produced Gomorrah) and City of God, the individual stories range from the little guy to the big players. The lives of the main […]
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ADVENTURELAND
Pitched as a wacky comedy for its theatrical run, Adventureland actually has very few laughs—perfectly fine in a sensitive, well-wrought coming-of-age story, which is what it actually is. This film has all the heart and insight erroneously attributed to Mottolla’s first film, Superbad. James (Jesse Eisenberg) is a newly graduated (class of ’86) lit student […]
