review

Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)Jeff Tweedy I came late to the Wilco game. Maybe it’s because I associated them with an old girlfriend who tried getting me into them. I was just too engaged in punk rock to really care. I remember us driving from San Diego to Portland Oregon and her playing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in the car trying to impress me. Hoping it would get through to me. It wasn’t happening. On that trip she also...

Sorry to Bother You 2018 was such a friggin’ good year for movies. Maybe because the artform has started opening the playing field to its audience and allowing more people than ever to make movies. A thing that musicians figured out a long time ago was a good thing. Who knows? I’ve never made a movie nor do I understand the intricacies of making one. What I do know is that independent movies are getting more attention than ever. Probably...

What a year it’s been, and especially for music. The bounty has been so good that, even though we’re giving you our top 20 choices for music this year, our list could have easily extended into the top 30. But we don’t have the stamina for that. Also, these albums are all winners and even though they’re in order, this could have easily been different depending on our mood. Regardless, these are our recommendations for best music (and some movies...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into EP by Dad Brains. Now over forty years since it first appeared, it was inevitable that punk rock was probably going to take on something that resembled a fatherly voice, somehow. How could it not? With Green Day having made concept records already and both Fat Mike Burkett and Mike Watt having produced punk rock opera albums, punk and its pillars have already begun taking on “grown up projects” (or at least...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Mass Apathy” 12” single by NOi!SE. It might not sound like the single most glowing endorsement of a single on the surface, but the first thing that NOi!SE’s new, milled “Mass Apathy” single illustrates is that it’s never wise to underestimate a novelty, or write one off. The bullet casing silhouettes which encircle the exterior rim of this one-sided single (the B-side features a silkscreen but no music) look neat and...

The Fifth Risk Michael Lewis I love it when Michael Lewis does what Michael Lewis does best. And that’s breaking down a complex issue into easy to understand chunks. What’s more, he’s able to do it with topics that sound boring as hell. Who would have thought Sabermetrics and baseball lineups could ever be told in such an interesting story as Moneyball? Same goes for Glass Boys and its analysis of the stock market. I’ll go on a limb and...

BlackkKlansman I have one question for Spike Lee: how dumb does he think his audience is? I had high hopes for Blackkklansman. I heard good things from friends and the internet. Both touting it as entertaining and impressive. After all, when has the internet ever been wrong or hyperbolic? However, after finally watching it I realize that the internet is dumb. And maybe my friends are dumb too. Certainly, Spike lee thinks his audience is dumb and...

Hereditary In a way, I feel bad for the movie Hereditary. Partly because it’ll never get the feedback it deserves for its creators to really make a great follow-up, but also because this is a perfect example of a movie killing itself through its own advertisement. Before it was even released, Hereditary was presented as the new scariest movie of all time, the new Exorcist, and how watching it will basically ruin your life because it’s so scary. And...

Hits and Misses: Stories by Simon Rich A little insider info for you, dear reader, but sometimes we get unsolicited stuff from publishers. Sometimes, they’re not really our cup of tea. Instead of reviewing something we’re not too hot about, we skip it. Other times, we get a book completely out of left field that we absolutely love. That book is Simon Rich’s Hits and Misses. We had no idea who Simon Rich was and the joke’s on us, considering...

Jon Spencer Spencer Sings The Hits (In The Red Records) In Jon Spencer’s debut solo album, Spencer Sings The Hits, fans will find a genuine and true revelation about both the singer and his music. Here, they’ll finally get a sense of what portion of the music to which he has contributed over the years (with the Blues Explosion, Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash, Spencer Dickinson and so on) is actually his; it will suddenly become easy to see...