review

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into PWR/UP by AC/DC. For basically the last thirty-eight years, AC/DC has tried a few different things and taken a few different turns to try and grow up (or age up? Or act their age?) with limited success at most. Every time the band has tried to move forward from the callous one-liners and double entendres that first helped to make them famous (Flick Of The Switch was the first occasion), AC/DC has...

Stalin: Passage to Revolutionby Ronald Grigor Suny How much has been written about Stalin since he came to power? The man’s history has been written, reanalyzed, and re-written over and over again so much that’s it’s hard to imagine anything new can be said about the guy. However, we always hear about how new documents are uncovered when the soviet archives were opened and the past decades, scholars have taken this opportunity to reevaluate the big figures in Soviet history....

The Dirty Nil Fuck Art (Dine Alone Records) Rare is the band which knows precisely who they are and actually celebrates that identity rather than asking listeners to excuse it. There’s a certain spark in the music made by bands like that – Alice Cooper Group had it, as did Dead Kennedys, Eagles of Death Metal and Green Day – and The Dirty Nil steps up boldly to prove that they’ve got it with their third album, Fuck Art. Of...

Paul Leary Born Stupid (Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise) When guitarist Paul Leary suddenly reappeared contributing guitar performances to The Melvins’ twentieth album, Hold It In, as well as contributing some songwriting to the project about six years ago, it felt like a shocking development. Not that Leary had vanished or retired or anything, the guitarist was simply busy with other endeavors; he developed a band or two of his own (Honky was great) as well as doing production work – so his...

Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy Can you think of a more iconic, feel good, action packed, gripping and hilarious trilogy than Back to the Future? People like to remind you that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but I like to remind people that this is a sci fi movie, and perhaps one of the most successful ones. The reason why people forget it’s a sci-fi movie is because Back to the Future has so much...

The Hobbit: The Motion Picture Trilogy 4K Blu-rayExtended & Theatrical / 4K Ultra HD + Digital HD We are extremely happy to be covering Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth movies here on TV Party Tonight and after considering the order, we decided that talking about the Hobbit trilogy would be the easiest place to start, only because there’s so much more to talk about, and in our case, defend. After the massive success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, both...

WHO: Brook Pridemore WHAT: Metal is My Only Friend WHY: Brook Pridemore has been at it for quite a while, honing his craft. And just when I think he’s outdone himself, he does it again. Metal is My Only Friend has been out for a couple years now but, as I take calm walks enjoying the Fall weather, its brilliance has finally hit me. This is most definitely an underdog of an album that exceeds all expectations. It’s beautifully crafted,...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Naked Giants’ The Shadow LP. While it’s not terribly uncommon for a band to make great creative changes in their sound and style unexpectedly throughout their career, the knowledge that such events can happen still doesn’t exactly explain the arc that Naked Giants have taken which ultimately brought the band to The Shadow – the group’s second full-length album for New West Records (third for the label). When the band started (in...

The Dispossessedby Ursula LeGuin I love Sci-Fi. I really do. I like to think of myself as a sci-fi guy. I’m not just talking movies and TV shows (the good ones, at least), but I try to actually do the work and read the classics. I’m waiting to meet a guru of the genre one day who can guide me to the real classics, and lesser known greats. Until then, I’m stuck going for the obvious choices. Of course, Isaac...

Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthoodby Lucy Knisley I’ll be the first to admit that becoming a dad has made me soft. It comes as a surprise because I’ve been a cynical bastard for most of my life. And although I never wanted to become the guy who flaunts picture of his kid to people – and I still haven’t exactly – I will expound on stories of my kid when asked. I’m...