Breaking Bad Review: "Shotgun" (Episode 4.05)
Swerving chaotically in and out of traffic, Walt races across town fumbling with his cell phone. He still can’t get a hold of Jesse, and he’s telling Saul to give all the money that he’s made to his wife in the result that they don’t hear from him again. Similar to the opening scene in season one, he tells his family he loves them by making a call to the home answering machine. Walt is preparing for the worst as he races towards getting Jesse back.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsMaria Taylor: Overlook
Birmingham, Ala., has a surprisingly vibrant indie scene, with acts as diverse as 13ghosts, Delicate Cutters and Vulture Whale making inventive music that puts new spins on Southern rock and folk. So when Maria Taylor moved from Los Angeles back to her hometown, it wasn’t like she was moving into the middle of nowhere, just somewhere very different from the West Coast.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsKanye West and Jay-Z: Watch The Throne
Strange that, for an album built around what might be the most star-studded duo collab in hip hop history, the first voice you hear on the highly anticipated Watch The Throne is neither Jay-Z's nor Kanye West's. read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsMoonface: Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped
There’s a pretty decent chance that if you find yourself questioning whether or not a rabidly bleeping and organ-driven track involves Spencer Krug—it probably does.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsFruit Bats: Tripper
Eric D. Johnson’s debut album under the Fruit Bats moniker, Echolocution, was released at a fortuitous time—at least in terms of the fickle inclinations of the quote-unquote indie rock community. In the early 2000s, many people listening to and critically analyzing independent music took warmly to various modern interpretations of folk music, and as a result, many artists that fit into this rather nebulous spectrum—Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart, The Shins, Joanna Newsom, et al—found themselves selling goodly amounts of records and concert tickets. We bandied about terms such as “freak folk” as if they were going to... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsTrue Blood Review: “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Episode 4.06)
A major part of True Blood’s appeal to fans is “the love triangle,” the whole Eric vs. Bill debate that is endlessly discussed on forums. In the first three seasons, they kept the central romance plot relatively closed off, only really focusing on Bill and Sookie. Any hints that Eric might be even interested were steadily developed, and they waited for Sookie and Bill to call it quits before developing the romance between Eric and Sookie. And that really played to the show’s advantage. Each relationship Sookie has had with the other vampire has felt independent, and there hasn’t been this... read more
Found in: ReviewsCowboys & Aliens review
What could bring together cowboys and Indians in the Wild West? Aliens, of course! The high concept Western/sci-fi Cowboys & Aliens manages quite capably to blend two genres, producing surprisingly entertaining b-movie pulp.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsBreaking Bad Review: Episode 4.2
Season four of Breaking Bad is shaping up to be a game of cat and mouse. Walter is hellbent on killing Gus, and Gus seems to be two steps ahead. After all, he wouldn’t be where he is today if he wasn’t that cautious. The game is uneven, as Walter is still relatively new to all of this. He’s an amateur. Gus has been doing this for years, and if his message sent by slitting the throat of one of his most loyal workers with a box cutter wasn’t enough to prove he’s not to be fucked with, I don’t... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsRelease the Sunbird: Come Back to Us
A wise man may have once said, “Our lives are nothing more than a series of reactions.” Everything we do is a response to something that has come before; we’re never satisfied, always pushing and searching for something more to inspire us or take us some place new. It’s a concept that often pops up in popular music—and the new project from Zach Rogue, songwriter/brains behind the underrated indie-pop outfit Rogue Wave, is a perfect example.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsJoss Stone: LP1
Soul child Joss Stone grew up going toe-to-toe and holding her own with some of classic R&B’s finest, and that old soul presence made for a disconnect: free spirit hippie girl inhabiting Timmy Thomas’ vintage “I’ve Fallen In Love With” with the same lived-in familiarity she brought to her take on The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a Girl.”... read more
Found in: Music, Reviews
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
