I’ll get to the show, but first I need to get this off my chest.

Note to Rock bands: turn it down.

Some bands that I’ve seen live take advantage of all those amplifiers and stacks of speakers to expand their dynamic range beyond what is possible on a recording. With all that power the loud parts can pack more of a punch and the volume shifts can be more extreme and more abrupt. When bands use them the right way, the tools of the stage can make their songs move and come alive in new ways; their music becomes more dynamic, more exciting, and more enjoyable than any recording. (more…)

It does, indeed, take two to make a thing go right. Rob Base & DJ EZ-E’s classic “It Takes Two” DEMOLISHED the competitors.

This week: because I couldn’t stand not having Radiohead on the playlist. (more…)

“Meat! Meat!”

Oh my. Prepare yourself, folks! The real future of horror movies isn’t DOOM or Uwe Boll movies or even SAW. No, it’s the big-budget B-movie, blending camp and shock into an unwieldy, enjoyable mess.

SLITHER is the newest offering from James Gunn, who brought us the tepid 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD remake and the (hopefully) forgettable SCOOBY-DOO movie. Fanboys and girls, take heart: at its core, SLITHER is a redneck, fun, campy, gross, witty, deadpan horror movie, the likes of which I haven’t seen since TREMORS. (more…)

Inside Man represents a welcome return to form for Spike Lee after recent drek like She Hate Me.

Any movie whose soundtrack begins with a rousing Bollywood filmi number (without dancers, alas) is going to win friends, even if there is nothing even vaguely Indian about the film. OK, there’s a Sikh in it who is mistaken for an Arab. Such openings may smack of Spike Lee in full gratuitous mode, but Inside Man brings style and substance into near harmony.

Clive Owen plays the cerebral bank robber with a plan to execute the perfect heist. Denzel Washington is the world-wise cop (complete with trademark Denzel grin and verbal suavité) whose job it is to make sure Owen doesn’t walk out of the bank’s front door a free man (as Owen has promised to do). Christopher Plummer is the billionaire bank owner with a dirty secret in the vault, a secret that the film sensibly reveals early on. Inside Man is not about the secret, it’s about the heist that the secret makes possible. Hint: if Christopher Plummer had a dirty secret, what do you think it would be? Think elderly Swiss bankers. (Oh, Christopher, why the hell didn’t you burn the bloody thing?)
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I’ve seen enough. Give it to Taylor Hicks.

Since I am so very cool, I just need to say that I hate American Idol. I rarely like the music they sing and I can’t stand the judges. But I do like to analyze and judge the singing and performance skills. That’s why American Idol rocks! (more…)

Let’s talk about Lost. It’s on tonight. Is that guy they’ve been torturing in the hatch an other, or not? I think he is. Just look at him. Shifty-eyed bugger. (more…)

The Hellacopters are a straight-up fun rock band. They’re usually labelled garage rock and compared to the MC5 and the Stooges. Their latest album, Rock’n'Roll is Dead, simply proves that it isn’t.

I feel completely lame that I only discovered them a couple years ago (they’ve been around a long time) and had never seen them live before last weekend. I knew they’d be great. And they were.
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If you haven’t yet listened to Ricky Gervais’ podcast, run to you local iTunes Music Store and get it. And it’s not what’s being said that’s so freaking funny, it’s all about how they say it. The reactions to Karl are golden.

Pure brilliance.

Loose Fur’s (personnel: Jeff Tweedy and Glen Kotche of Wilco, and Jim O’Rourke, Wilco producer, solo artist, formerly of Sonic Youth) second album, Born Again in the U.S.A., surprised me. I had expected, and kind of hoped for, a record similar to the Wilco side project’s self-titled inaugural effort. That record was a collection of six subdued, unusual, captivating songs that unfolded slowly and gradually. The syncopated Rock n’ Roll riff that shouts from Tweedy’s guitar to open Born Again’s first track, “Hey Chicken,” promises a different experience. The album delivers on that promise with a lot of raucous energy, with four incontrovertible pop gems, two penned by Tweedy (”The Ruling Class” and “Wanted) and two by O’Rourke (”Stupid as the Sun” and “Thou Shalt Wilt”), and with an overall shift towards a somewhat more traditional rock/pop sound. (more…)

I imagine that there are two types of reviews to make of a sequel. The first type takes the film on its own merits, disregarding the initial film and examining the plot, characters and filmmaking as a whole. The second type of review analyzes the film in the continuity of the series, holding it up against the standard set by the first film and examining character development, consistency and overall tenor and quality.

Neither of these methods will work for ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN. All you really want to know is, how are the scenes with the Scrat? (more…)

The controversial “Hippie” songs battle is over. By a single vote, Simon & Garfunkel - 59th Street Bridge Song beat out the Woodstock version of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”. Don’t ever say your vote doesn’t matter!!

This week: your three favorite songs. (more…)

Winning the whole game. Up by 17 at one point. All they had to do was make one more shot in the final three minutes… or hold onto the ball at the end… or ANY OTHER ACTION EXCEPT WHAT HAPPENED! This was one of those moments (remember the Super Bowl) that every single thing that could have gone wrong, did. Like the forces of unfairness were rising up against my team.

It now officially sucks to be a Seahawks AND Gonzaga fan.

I effing hate sports.

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “death metal?” Skinny kids in Sweden wearing corpse paint? Sorry, that’s black metal. Do you think of brutal, heavy, crushing music with abrasive, growled vocals? Or beautiful, melodic, compelling music with soft vocals? Fans of Opeth will know, death metal is both. But then, Opeth fans would’ve known who I was referring to by the title alone.

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Dylanesque. Troubadour. Rambling. Storytelling. Adjectives like these sum up the overall style of Destroyer, Vancouverite Dan Bejar’s band, but they don’t really do a good job of conveying what Destroyer’s all about with the new album, “Destroyer’s Rubies.”

Yelpy. Self-referential. Musically basic, but lyrically superlative. That’s more like it. (more…)

How have we never had this conversation? (more…)

Female vocalists are apparently voter kryptonite. But a close race, with Everything But The Girl ’s “Mirrorball” merging on top.

This week: Hippie songs. (more…)

March Madness has arrived! Duke will win the tournament. Discuss.

I attended the Low show in Los Angeles last weekend, March 3, and was able to interview Alan Sparhawk, singer/guitarist, the next afternoon for a few minutes. I’m a huge fan of Low, so I probably came off as rather enthusiastic (and somewhat awkward), but I managed to get some interesting comments out of him.
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Rosebud vs. The Mob
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Big Star’s “Thirteen” squeaks a victory over Wilco in last week’s voting, 8 votes to 7 in pathetic voter turnout.

Some female vocals for you this week.
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So, things haven’t been going too well around the Fox household lately. Melissa is coming to the end of what has been her most difficult pregnancy yet. My professional future has pretty much come down to a single, thin thread. And it’s been grey and rainy for weeks. So what am I doing, as I wait out the weather and wait for everything else to play itself out? I turn to comforting things. (more…)

One of my favorite releases of 2005 was a six-song demo in a plain brown cardboard jacket, with the words “Band of Horses” stamped in faded blue ink. I picked it up after seeing the Seattle band open for the Mountain Goats in an East Atlanta bar, and listened to it incessantly. On March 21, the Horses will finally release a proper debut album under the SubPop banner, entitled “Everything All the Time,” complete with real (and beautiful) cover art, and it’s a brilliant record.

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