Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest
“Some girls are bright as the morning, some girls are blessed with a dark turn of mind”... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsTrue Blood Review: Season 4 Premiere ("She's Not There")
True Blood is part fantasy and part melodrama, but it’s the show’s small-town Louisiana characters which have kept it engaging through three seasons, using vampires, werewolves and other creatures of the night to explore prejudice, addiction and corruption. Season 4 returns us to Bon Temps after the initial escape from fairy land.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsFriday Night Lights Review: "Don't Go" (Episode 5.10)
It was with a heavy heart that I loaded this screener DVD into my player — we’re down to the last four episodes of Friday Night Lights, and I’m down to my very last DVD.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBon Iver: Bon Iver
Not since a creek drank a cradle in 2002 had anyone so quietly overtaken the indie-music community as Justin Vernon did in 2008 with Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. That post-break-up album was drenched in the kind of sadness that feels a lot like joy. Rather than wallowing in loss, the music was a hopeful contrast to lyrics like “Saw death on a sunny snow.” It was less like the end of a relationship and more like the promise of a new beginning.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsBridesmaids review
Kristin Wiig is brilliant. This remains true despite a concerted effort on SNL's part to make me hate her—a campaign that Lorne Michaels ran consistently since the '90s against some of their funniest women. If you're a female and you join the cast of SNL, watch out—SNL thinks that funny female equals over-the-top annoying. Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, Anna Geysteyer, Ratchel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler have all suffered from this phenomenon which may or may not have started with Victoria Jackson. In fact, the only SNL lady who seemed completely immune to this was Tina Fey and, oh look—she was the head writer. read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsGivers: In Light
I love when a big deal band comes to town, sporting a local opener clearly breast-fed on their landmark albums. One example: indie-experimentalists Dirty Projectors, who turned heads at a recent Louisiana gig largely due to their openers—an energetic, instrument-swapping Lafayette-based five-piece known as Givers. With a dexterous instrumental attack, tuneful yet alien hooks, and a proficiency for squiggly, short-circuiting electric guitar fills, it’s obvious the former Paste Best of What’s Next band selected the Projectors’ Bitte Orca as a Desert Island Disc—but In Light, their official debut, fortunately transcends their transparent inspirations the old-fashioned way: by twisting the nuances... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsMadeleine Peyroux: Standing on the Rooftop
Madeleine Peyroux is best known for her dusky, out-of-time croon, whose lustrous grain will never live down—or up to, for that matter—the Billie Holiday comparisons that have dogged her over the last 15 years. While her vocals have certainly earned her many fans, perhaps her truest gift is her impeccable taste in material. Largely eschewing the oversung classics of the American Songbook, Peyroux has lent her voice to an array of songs representing an adventurous diversity: from Fred Neil and Leonard Cohen to Elliott Smith and Serge Gainsbourg. Half the excitement over a new album is anticipating who she’ll cover... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsFucked Up: David Comes to Life
Much like Psychedelic Horseshit, Bitch Magnet or Anal Cunt, Fucked Up is one of those bands I can’t really discuss with my mother. Next time we chat, and she asks if I’ve written about anything interesting lately, I can’t tell her I reviewed the new Fucked Up record. Nothing against her, she’s a very sweet and good-natured woman, but she can’t wrap her head around this kind of stuff. She didn’t even listen to the Cat Power album I bought her, so even if Fucked Up had a less expletive-inclined name, they wouldn’t stand a chance. Which is a shame,... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsDale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. : It's a Corporate World
The Detroit-based duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott) is hard to classify. The label calls them “indie-pop.” If you were going to coin one of those annoying, overused and mostly meaningless genre mashups writers like to coin for music outside an easy to draw frame, you might call them indie-alt-digital-folk-garage-rock-pop. Regardless of what you call them, you can feel how much fun they’re having the whole time, and just like laughter or Hep C, it’s highly contagious.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsCults: Cults
Ultimately, Cults is an album that can be enjoyed as either a summer soundtrack or as something with a darker, more concrete substance. read more
Found in: Music, Reviews
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