Content:
I admit I'm not much of a reviewer of music. Movies no problem, but there are many more people out there more qualified to give opinions on music then myself; but I'll do my best. Tegan and Sara Quin are twin sisters who along with bandmates Rob Chursinoff (drums), Chris Carlson (bass), and Ted Gowans (guitar) have a good pop/alt sound and really seem to have more of a college following. Most people I asked had never heard of the band, even though on the tour documentary they're shown opening for The Killers. The music to me was reminiscent of bands like The Breeders and Veruca Salt; even though those bands seem to have moments more heavy than Tegan and Sara.

Audio:
The disc I was given to review appeared to be a dvd-r, so the audio was fine but nothing too exciting. Not that a surround sound experience is really necessary, but the dolby digital did a fine job putiin...Read the entire review

I'm no expert when it comes to music history, so that's just one more reason I was fascinated by the bulk of Josell Ramos' Maestro (2003). This collage of dance music history is loaded with rare footage and interesting interviews, skillfully assembled over a period of four years by the first-time filmmaker. It doesn't always fire on all cylinders, but even those who aren't familiar with the genre should find a lot of interesting information during the film's short 77-minute running time. Featuring participation from true pioneers of the industry, Maestro goes for broke by presenting decades' worth of history in just over an hour.

First, let's get the obvious out of the way: if you're interested in the early years of dance music culture, house music or the history of DJs and their equipment...Read the entire review

Every once in a while, rock and roll needs to reset itself – especially after a single entity has lorded over it for any significant amount of time. Thus was the case in 1970, when the generation-defining force known as the Fab Four finally folded and started to slowly fade away. The Beatles indeed called it quits after almost a decade on top, declaring the dream officially over. With their passing was ushered in a new era without a single signature sound that would or could change the world. They appeared to be the last group to actually modify the planet's pleasure principles single band handedly. The resulting void was massive, and the recording industry fought to fill it with anything they could. Initially novelty songs, saccharine show tunes and pure pop drivel, a combination of manufactured sounds and overreaching randomness was the order of the day. Within this variable climate, even the tacky...Read the entire review

The Movie

"Liverpool has John Lennon and Manchester has Morrissey ... it's amazing." - Unidentified female fan, Who Put The 'M' in Manchester?

Stephen Patrick Morrissey had a hell of a year in 2004. His comeback album (his first in seven years), "You Are The Quarry" met with fawning critical adoration and he toured the world to sold-out stadiums and screaming fans delighted to have their angst-ridden, melancholic maestro back from exile. It also helped that bands channeling The Smiths were fast becoming de rigeur on the charts.

Filmed on May 22, 2004 at Manchester's Evening News Arena, the birthday/homecoming show is packed with cuts from "Quarry" as well as liberally sprinkled with Smiths gems from the halcyon days of Morrissey and Marr. Cheekily opening with a faux British film censor's certificate, the film opens and closes with quick-cut montages o...Read the entire review

This review was written and published one day before the passing of Russell Jones, A.K.A The Ol Dirty Bastard. I'm sad that he never got a chance to get his career together again and create another album as brilliant as the first Wu-Tang Clan album and his first two solo releases. I hope this troubled but exciting performer finally has a chance to rest now.

Arriving on the scene at a time when the West Coast was delivering the most popular hip-hop, Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan hit hard. Their debut album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" delivered shockingly spare music and a round-table of powerful vocal performances from a stable of nine MCs, including...Read the entire review

The Movie:

When Pantera imploded a few years ago, a lot of people figured that their angry front man Phil Anselmo would fall by the wayside and into some sort of heroin induced life in a ditch somewhere. While he may have come close (who knows for sure) he ended up working with Necrophagia for a while and then devoting more of his fulltime attention to his latest project, Superjoint Ritual.

This change in musical styles and directions for Anselmo resulted in his new band playing larger club shows – a big change from selling out auditoriums like he was doing with Pantera. It has also resulted in a tighter, angrier, heavier band that really delivers live and pretty much destroys the audience in the process (and I mean that in a good way).

The band played legendary New York City music club CBGB in the summer of 2004 in support of their latest album, ...Read the entire review

If there's one word that you wouldn't use to describe the biggest bands to spring out of mid-90's industrial Britain like Portishead and Massive Attack it's "fun." God love 'em, but they trade on spooky atmosphere, introspective lyrics and dour mood. Springing from the same scene and using some of the same arsenal of sounds and styles, Moloko found a way to infuse the creativity of those bands with a sense of poppy fun and swagger. Credit that side of their music to sassy singer Roisin Murphy. The Moloko 11,000 Clicks DVD documents the band's final gig on their 2003 UK tour at the Brixton Academy.

The performance is high energy and filled with Murphy's strutting persona. She may not be the strongest singer out there but she has a way of taking Brit-pop and enhancing it with a Shirley Bassey-blare. She takes the stage with full diva-confidence but her persona also seems to be part put-o...Read the entire review

Of all the reunited bands taking a stab at continuing their careers Blondie seem far less embarrassing than most. It's probably because frontwoman Debbie Harry seemed so far ahead of her time during the band's late-70s/early-80s heyday that we're probably only catching up to her now. Her performance on the strange A&E concert series Live By Request shows exactly what's so great about her. She's quirky and fun but always compelling and always dynamic.

I've found installments of Live By Request with other artists to be distracting and oddly paced (the show offers fans the opportunity to call in during the show and request the band play their favorite songs) but Harry and her bandmates Chris Stein and Clem Burke sell the format with their funny asides. While the request portions and on-stage interviews are funny what makes this program fun to watch is the energy that Harry bring...Read the entire review

You have to hand it to Gene Simmons. Who else but this timid son of immigrants could turn a career as a kabuki-inspired rock and roll star into a three-decade plus multi-media empire? When KISS first broke out onto the music scene in the early 70s, pop culture was not initially impressed. It took endless touring, a steely determination and a little LP called Alive to transform the formidable men in makeup into a heavy metal dynasty. And once a fan got a whiff of one of those KISS concerts – half theatrics, half thunder – a lifelong bond was created. Simmons has been stellar in manipulating that devotion into a burgeoning business worth millions. He has successful marketed the band's iconic look onto numerous items, both novelty and noteworthy. You can, today, buy KISS dolls, KISS lunchboxes, KISS car accessories, KISS condoms and – yes – even a KISS coffin (which doubles as a beer cooler – na...Read the entire review

If the CD can be blamed for anything, it's the death of the concept album. While the expanded space on a compact disc would seem like a natural compliment to the inflated artistic aspirations and imagination of a musician, the opposite effect has actually occurred. Maybe it's the wide-open ability to include every last crass non-commercial cut - no matter how b-side bad or trash bin worthy it is - onto the actual track list (a guaranteed way to destroy a singular vision) that undermines the tune union. Or perhaps it's just an overall misunderstanding of the concept album's dynamics. There have been all-acoustic sets and some cover version releases that allow a band to dabble in the realm of the idealized without having to create a logical linking story to go along with the noise, but the number of real thematically-based tune collections released since Floyd met Pink, Tommy conquered the Bally table an...Read the entire review

What in the hermit of mink hollow has happened to Todd Rundgren? At one time, he was a wizard, a true star. He was an artist who could do something, anything and his fans were happy. He was a god, both as a pure pop for now people performer and a dial twisting production genius for such acts as Grand Funk Railroad, Meatloaf, The Psychedelic Furs, The Tubes and XTC. But ever since the mid-80s, when the ever-tortured artist discovered the effect of computers and technology on the craft of making music, Rundgren has disappeared from the simple song scene. Oh sure, he's released countless albums and started his own interactive website (TR-i). But once magical moments like the chorus of "Hello, It's Me" or the joyous intro to "I Saw the Light" have all but vanished from the cultural radar. Where Todd was always a well-considered mainstay, he now appears like a crazy old coot, locked up in his video vault ma...Read the entire review

Of all the modern sub-genres of music, industrial has the most enigmatic moniker. Suggesting so much while revealing so little, this aural onslaught style of sonic rage has long been the extreme sports of songwriting and performance. Sure, death metal has its aggressive grind, and some of techno's more intense digitizing can grow gruesome and horrific, but when it comes to the instrumental equivalent of an atrocity or the sound of a menacing machine's death throws, industrial delights in the terrifying sounds of technology spread out over the primal scream scars of a bitter, indifferent dominion. The music is hard and fast, filled with gearbox bravado and plenty of solid steel shredding. For the uninitiated, Trent Reznor and his seminal "band" Nine Inch Nails, and the volcano ferocity of Ministry and their enigmatic frontman Al Jourgensen, usually make for recognizable references. But there are several...Read the entire review

There was always something a little fishy (Phishy?) about Ween and their new DVD, Ween - Live in Chicago, proves it. How else could two "Brothers" (Gene and Dean) from New Hope, PA have ever huffed enough Scotchgard to create the mind-bending, genre-hopping albums that have helped them to amass an absolutely rabid cult of fans? Ween have been on the fringe of the Indie scene for almost 15 years, and in their most recent incarnation, have begun to align themselves with the jam band movement, attracting a large number of the genre's fans by playing events like Bonnaroo. What gives? This is a band that wrote a song called "Hippie Smell"! However, I guess that Ween do exhibit a lot of traits that most jam bands are guilty of, including goofball lyrics, tons of drug references and, of course, songs with the capacity to be played… well, forever.

Ween's main streng...Read the entire review