Gremlins You know how some people like to have an argument about how Die Hard is a Christmas movie? It was cute back when it first happened, but now it’s just seems tired. I could say the same thing about the movie Shazam! What it boils down to is that people seem to need an excuse to watch Die Hard, and they shouldn’t need the Holiday season to do that. On the other hand, there are...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the All That Matters Is This Matter LP by Holy Beach. Someone wise once said that “Variety is the soul of pleasure. Variety is the condition of harmony. The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor.” In that spirit, The Deftones once totally reinvigorated heavy metal music by simultaneously making their approach...
Apocalypse Now! 40th Anniversary 4K Final Cut Edition It’s in graduate school that movies really hit me. Maybe it was the desire to gain a better understanding of the artform, or maybe it was the fact that I was stuck in the country going to school with nothing to do. I remember driving 20 minutes to visit a local CD Warehouse on a weekly basis, not to buy any CDs, but to marvel at their incredible used DVD selection (which...
Oh Sees Smote Reverser photo: turntablelab.com It’s a funny thing when you think a band has topped themselves to the point of no return. That happened to me when I first heard Smote Reverser by Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees). Now this statement (topping oneself) is a hard one to make for a band like this. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: Oh Sees put out records like Donald Trump lies. Now there’s a thought… But...
Empowered Vol. 11by Adam Warren Reckon with the man Adam Warren and his works! Especially Empowered. I gotta say the only thing that’s gotten worse about the Empowered series is that they don’t come out as often as they used to. Is it a superhero comic? A parody of superheroes? A manga? A sci-fi story? It’s really all of those things. Adam Warren has been able to grow and mature his little baby which started out as short “sketches” of...
The Hold SteadyThrashing Thru the Passion Happy 400th Vinyl Vlog! Thank god for this album, folks. Thank GOD! I think I’ve said this before, but the Hold Steady are one of those bands that suffers from Monty Python syndrome, in the sense that it’s good, but the most annoying people in the world will not shut the fuck about it. Have you met a Hold Steady fan? If you’re not sure, then you haven’t. The real Hold Steady fans are annoying as hell. As such, it’s hard to...
The Fleshies Introducing the Fleshies photo: sorrystaterecords.com The Fleshies conjure up distinct memories in my brain. No, not of circle pits and skateboarding empty pools. The Fleshies remind me of the Pennsylvania country side. It’s in my long drives where I would most often consume albums in their entirety without interruptions. I knew I had always enjoyed the Fleshies (or just “Fleshies” as they used to be called), but on a 2 hour drive through the aforementioned Pennsylvania countryside I...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the HumanWorld LP by Peter Perrett. As of 2019, saying that singer/guitarist Peter Perrett has had a storied career would be a laughable understatement. After forming (and then collapsing) Glory in 1976, Perrett formed the fantastic Only Ones in 1978 where he established one of the greatest songbooks in the history of power pop. Perrett has ridden The Only Ones, off and on, ever since then (the band has broken up and...
Shazam! How is Shazam! not the biggest movie of the year? It certainly was a big success and made a whopping $364 million vs its $100 cost, so it is was indeed a giant hit. So much so that a sequel is being developed. But Shazam! didn’t become a cultural phenomenon like the Marvel movies have. And that’s quite a shame, because DC movies will never get the same recognition as Marvel movies no matter how original they try...
We’re Pregnant! The First Time Dad’s Pregnancy Handbook by Adrian Kulp Child-rearing! An event rarely experienced or written about. This book is a first! No of course not, but if you think that books for parents-to-be are probably more woman-centric then you would be very right. Of course there are books detailing the developmental process which should be something that interests both parents, but since the baby is inside the mother, it only makes sense to talk about what changes...