3 Inches of Blood
Fire Up the Blades
F
ire
Up the Blades sees 3 Inches of Blood taking the sounds of their '80s
metal influences to new extremes to create a signature sound all their
own.Lest anyone doubt the sincerity of Vancouver’s D&D metallers, what’s
more metal than replacing your entire band except for the vocalist(s)?
Ask Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) or W. Axl Rose. On Fire Up the Blades,
3IOB’s dual throats are the only members remaining from the last album,
while Joey Jordison (aka #1/scary kabuki-mask drummer guy in Slipknot)
sits in the producer’s chair for an album so metal that a song called
"The Goatrider’s Horde" is the first single.
Against Me
New Wave
Just
what are Against Me! shouting about anyway?Against Me! are just off a fairly bizarre triple-bill tour with
Cursive and Mastodon, and are set to play the massive Roskilde fest in
Belgium this month. It’s a pretty far cry from their origins in a scene
of fiercely DIY folk-punk bands and labels, homegrown multi-band fests
and a general disdain for all things big and corporate. And yep, New
Wave is their first for a big corporate label, Sire (who also
snapped up Mastodon), with a big name on the producer’s credit: Butch
Vig. Their last one addressed Condoleezza Rice by name and with a fairly
extravagant video. "White People for Peace," the first single and video
from New Wave, is almost as literal as it speaks of "protest
songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun." New Wave is also
notable as the first AM! album not to have acoustic guitars on it,
though it does have a pretty unpunk guest vocalist: Tegan Quin of Tegan
and Sara, on "Borne on the FM Waves."
Bad Religion
New Maps of Hell
While
most groups with even half the artistic output have long ago morphed
into stylistic self parody, Bad Religion are currently surging forward
with a renewed creative intensity.Greg Graffin may be getting his scholarly impulses out with the book
he co-authored with Preston Jones (titled Is Belief in God Good, Bad
or Irrelevant?) because New Maps of Hell seems a bit less
didactic than Bad Religion have been on their last couple. "Requiem for
Dissent" is probably the most pretentious title, and that’s not even
that bad! They’re still going at it with three guitarists, and band
founder Brett Gurewitz is still cranking out big punk singles like
"Honest Goodbye."
Bonde Do Role
With Lasers
Brazilian
indie electro-rock for the masses.If you liked Cansei de Ser Sexy—or, heck, even heard of ’em—you’ll
love Bonde Do Role. Or, heck, you’ll at least hear of ’em. That’s the
word on the street, and it’s a comparison to be expected—how much
Brazilian indie electro-rock do we get exposed to, after all? But it’s
hardly accurate, as these kids are much more firmly rooted in the
joyously chintzy Rio dance eclecticism known as baile funk, the
self-same craze that bowled over so many indie kids a few years back.
One of the bowled-over many was
Diplo, the Hollertronix DJ (and M.I.A. boy-pal), and ’twas he who first
signed this manic Brazilian trio. It’s easy to hear why. Bonde Do Role
share with their patron—who made his name by mashing R&B and hip-hop
together with indie and classic rock—a love for the disjunctive
collision of sounds as well as a gleeful sensibility that keeps the
project from seeming arch. And they also love guitars, which on With
Lasers are by turns twangy, metallic, chunky, bluesy, and overall,
just plain guitar-y.
The group has suffered some mishaps
on their course to international acclaim—though they weren’t down much
when Marina Vello recently dislocated her shoulder while crowd-surfing,
Bonde Do Role had to cancel a series of west coast dates after DJ
Rodrigo Gorky returned to Brazil for emergency dental surgery. But hell,
if you can create an international indie craze in South America out of
the detritus of imperialist pop, you’ve got some kind of historical
inevitability or your side, no? You’ll hear of Bonde Do Role soon. Heck,
you may even come to love them.
Darkest Hour
Deliver Us
For
a band that has been together for well over a decade, Darkest Hour are
just hitting their prime with the release of their new CD, Deliver Us.At the end of 1986’s animated Transformers: the Movie,
Rodimus Prime opens the Creation Matrix and solemnly intones, "Now,
light our darkest hour." That cheesy-ass bulls*it is the exact opposite
of what these inspired DC thrashers do, and we’re pretty sure they’re
not gonna ho out on the live-action Transformers soundtrack either.
Producer Devin Townsend again wrests some ferocious melodic shredding
out of the quintet, especially on "Doomsayers" and "Demon(s)."
David Bowie
Glass Spider
Bowie's
1987 tour documentary.Not exactly a highlight of Bowie’s distinguished career, but chock
full of entertainment value nonetheless, this 1987 tour documentary
featured the Thin White Duke going way over the top with a troupe of
ridiculous dancers and not so much in the way of hits. Still, it’s a
compelling document of an artist who rarely compromised, even when it
would clearly be to his benefit to not play so many damn songs off
Never Let Me Down.
David Torn
Prezens
David
Torn’s first band recording in twenty years for the ECM record label.Torn hasn’t released an ECM disc under his own name since his 1986
Frippertronic excursion Cloud About Mercury. Here, he enlists
Tim Berne’s Hard Cell—Berne on alto, drummer Tom Rainey and keyboardist
Craig Taborn—for an outing that’s both atmospheric and loud, sometimes
simultaneously.
DevilDriver
The Last Kind Words
Former
Coal Chamber vocalist courts real metal fans.Truer-than-thou metalheads will never take Dez Fafara seriously, no
matter what he does, thanks to his participation in Coal Chamber, that
nü-metal band with the scary ice cream man and the cover of "Shock the
Monkey." But at least he’s trying! DevilDriver’s previous two put Fafara
more in line with actual metal, and now The Last Kind Words
brings in producer Jason Suecof, who’s becoming the go-to guy for former
downtuned groovers who want to go legit.
Drowning Pool
Full Circle
Motley
Crue's Nikki Sixx guests.You thought those Godsmack Marines ads were patriotism on steroids?
Check out Drowning Pool’s "Soldiers," a veritable recruitment commercial
set to detuned chugging: "Huh! Yeah! This is for the soldiers! One for
all!" Not like we were expecting Dylanesque rumination from the band who
gave us "Let tha bodies hit tha FLO!" but this is actually no longer
that band. Ryan McCombs has taken over on vocals for the deceased Dave
Williams and the deposed Jason Jones.
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
Two
jazz greats at the top of their game.What do the two greatest jazz singers of all time (non-Billie Holiday
division) have in common, besides this handful of Tin Pan Alley
charmers? Not much in terms of vocal timbre, for sure, though his gruff
gutbucket complements her celestial clarity. But they share an
improvisational gift for distending or adorning the sonic elements of a
lyric without ever short-shrifting their meaning.
Emerson Hart
Cigarettes & Gasoline
Solo
debut from frontman for mid-90s hitmakers Tonic.If you think solo male "rockers" are heavy on the estrogen today,
consult your memory banks for Tonic’s mid ’90s power ballad "If You
Could Only See." Hart was the frontman of that weepy adult-alt
collective, but he’s reinvented himself for his solo debut, rocking the
cap and cig like Lennon. His super-enunciated croon complements the more
mature and introspective lyrics of slow-burners "Friend to a Stranger"
and the liberated "If You’re Gonna Leave."
Extras
Complete Season Two
Season
two of the HBO hit.In the grueling, uproarious first season, Ricky Gervais’ hapless
wannabe actor/writer finally got his autobiographical sitcom
green-lighted on the BBC. Unfortunately, respect and adulation are still
on the distant horizon, as When the Whistle Blows becomes a
catchphrase factory for the lowest common denominator.
Fanfare Ciocarlia
Queens and Kings
Respectful
contemporary gypsy music.Their take on "Born to Be Wild" for the Borat soundtrack
established these Balkan speed demons as just the sort of mavericks who
thrive in contemporary gypsy music. This pan-European survey melds
versatility with respect for tradition, with guests ranging from the
French flamenco guitar group Gitans Kaloome to the legendary Macedonian
singer Esma Redzepova.
Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake
From the River to the Ocean
Two
Chicago jazz vets continue their Thrill Jockey win streak.Thompson’s a beefy tenor sax elder with AACM cred but definite hard
bop leanings who really knows how to springboard off a hot drummer.
Drake’s the hottest drummer in avant-jazz, maybe hold the avant.
Together they handily surpass the high standards they set three years
ago with their first recorded collaboration, Back Together Again.
Garbage
Absolute Garbage
Now
at your disposal, a ton of Garbage hitsEvery ’90s alt-rock crew has evidently determined that 2007 would be
a super time to reform and cash in, so why not Garbage? We’ll tell you
why not: They never actually called it quits. After fourth album
Bleed Like Me did comparably meh business to predecessors Version
2.0 and beautifulgarbage, the supergroup went into
hibernation. Now they’re back with this remember-us retrospective, and
you know what? They had a lot of friggin’ hits after all! The first
self-titled album alone gave us "Vow," "Queer," "Stupid Girl" and "Only
Happy When It Rains." All of which—if you’ve never purchased a Curve
album in your life, and going off their record sales, we’re guessing
you haven’t—are wonderfully sexy, unique forays in to electropop.
Shirley Manson knew detached. Girl owned it. Hope she still does on the
new offering "Tell Me Where It Hurts."
Interpol
Our Love to Admire
Interpol
do the same thing better on album number three.First off, it should go without saying that this bad boy has the
cover of theinterpol_ourl.jpg month. A+ Photoshopping, gents. Now, onto
business: Back in 2002, people used to just crucify Interpol’s
Paul Banks for his Ian Curtis impression, much like the way Scott
Weiland took s*it for seemingly mimicking Eddie Vedder on Core.
In an interesting parallel to that situation, a billion more Curtis
clones started forming bands (it is kinda easy to sing that way),
and magically, Interpol at large come off a lot less grating. Unlike the
Strokes, who are constantly trying to distance themselves from their
Gang of Four thievery, the New Yorkers seem comfortable in their own
derivative skin, refining their dry angular attack on "The Heinrich
Maneuver" and minimizing their weak points (namely, Banks’ lyrics).
Expect more keyboards and artful restraint in the remainder. Evolution
doesn’t always have to happen overnight.
Kelly Clarkson
My December
Kelly
Clarkson’s latest can’t be a dud... can it?In this age of disposable culture and infinitesimal attention spans,
we expect the biggest rock stars—say, a Linkin Park or Killers—to incur
some pre-release s*it-talk. But Kelly "Since U Been Gone" Clarkson?
America’s sweetheart? What has the world come to when rumors surface of
Sony head Clive Davis pulling a Torben Ulrich on My December ("I
would say… delete that") and those rumors wind up pretty much on
the money?! So far, Davis—no dummy when it comes to this making hit
records thing—has been way off on single "Never Again," already a
Billboard and MTV fixture, but could the remainder of December
be grim and frostbitten? Considering that the label allegedly threw the
original American Idol scraps from Lindsay Lohan’s sophmore flop
as filler, we’re going to tentatively side with Ms. Clarkson. Clive
might wanna be careful—anyone who’s seen the "Never Again" video knows
how Kelly’s exes wind up.
Kelly Rowland
Ms. Kelly
Avidly-awaited
sophomore album from the Grammy-winning pop-urban musical superstar
Kelly Rowland.The ex-Destiny’s Child fox struck solo gold with 2002’s ubiquitous
Nelly duet "Dilemma," then curiously took nearly half a decade to
concoct the full-length follow-up. Her new jam is another high-pro
collabo (no, we will never apologize for that abbreviation), this time
with bulldog-in-a-skirt Eve, the surprisingly effervescent "Like This."
Perpetually scorned Beyoncé gets all the headlines, but here’s hoping
this independent woman scores her own winning streak on the charts.
King Diamond
Give Me Your Soul... Please
Blistering
metal "horror-opera concept album" that draws from themes from the
occult and King Diamond's personal life, after-life experiences and dark
imagination.Politeness doesn’t really sell a metal album. Imagine Kill ’Em
All… At Your Earliest Convenience or Show No Mercy (If That’s
Cool With You). We’re not sure why the pioneering Mercyful Fate
vocalist/Satanist/NASCAR fan is being so courteous with his new one.
Perhaps it’s part of the story, since it’s a concept album like "Them"
and Conspiracy, with a murdered child’s ghost taking bloody revenge and
the most eeeeevil King song in years, "The Black of Night."
Malouma
Nour
Distinctive
Mauritanian singer adds contemporary elements.This Mauritanian singer is one of North Africa’s great voices, but
she hasn’t yet enjoyed the success internationally that Tinariwen have
been met with. Here, a slew of session musicians create an odd clamor
behind her, equal parts Hendrixite guitar and contemporary beats that
never overwhelm her distinctive style.
Mario
Go
Mario
gets into the loverboy groove.Other artists who have titled an album Go: Newsboys, Letters
to Cleo, Vertical Horizon. Luckily, Super Mario’s not a ’90s alt-rock
also-ran, but a young R&B heartbreaker with skills and looks (think
Chris Rock, but ripped). The Baltimore native broke out five years ago
with a goofy take on Biz Markie’s "Just a Friend" but is in full
loverboy mode on this third effort. With assists from Neptunes, Akon,
Alicia Keys, and possibly Jesus Christ himself, we think he’ll land feet
first.
Mick Harvey
Two of Diamonds
Solo
album from founding Bad Seed features covers of songs by PJ Harvey, Bill
Withers, Emmylou Harris and more.While Nick Cave and some other Bad Seeds and assorted
miscreants are off getting raucous in Grinderman, founding Bad Seed and
multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey has made a restrained solo album with
the double bass in a prominent role and multiple guest pianists (P.J.
Harvey’s and Julitha Ray of the instrumental band Silver Ray), recorded
live in the studio. Nine of the tracks on Two of Diamonds are
covers of songs by P.J. Harvey, Bill Withers, Emmylou Harris, Australian
punks the Saints and others.
Minnie Driver
Seastories
Folksy
rock from likeable actress.Good Will Hunting was a decade ago, and the Barbados-raised
Brit hasn’t acted in anything of real consequence since (Hard Rain,
in retrospect, was maybe not the ideal follow-up). Helllllo, indie rock
career! Driver, who was actually poised to rock out on Island at 19,
well before America fell in love with them apples, has consulted
alt-icons Ryan Adams and Liz Phair to assist this sophomore effort. It’s
an innocuous, folksy, very likeable endeavor.
MxPx
Secret Weapon
MxPx
bring more melodic pop punk to the masses.Back on Tooth & Nail after a few years with the majors and a couple
of one-off albums and EPs, MxPx are up to album number eight with no
newfound maturity or serious musical aspirations. Secret Weapon’s
title track is the exact same speedy pop-punk full of harmonies and a
posi message (you are the secret weapon! It’s all up to you!) that made
the kids love ’em back in the Tooth & Nail days. They might be the least
threatening punk band of all time, but at least they’re not trying to be
U2.
Patton Oswalt
Werewolves & Lollipops
Patton
has been a stand-up comedian for almost twenty years and this is his
second CD. Lazy...or maybe busy.That guy from that one show is also one of the sharpest stand-ups
around, whether it’s dealing with clueless hecklers (as documented on "I
Tell a Story About Birth Control and Deal With a Retarded Heckler" and
an all-heckler side of a split single with the Melvins), having the
bright idea to get his fellow comics into rock clubs where kids can
actually afford to see them, or turning comic-nerd jokes into biting
commentary.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Chilling
story based on Patrick Suskind's 1985 novel.Based on one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite novels (penned by Patrick
Suskind in 1985) and long considered unfilmable—it’s about a man devoid
of odor who kills women for their scents, for god’s sake—this difficult
project was afforded chilling subtlety and artfulness by Run Lola
Run director Tom Twyker.
Puddle of Mudd
Famous
Follow-up
to their gold-certified release Life on Display.As we’ve pointed out before, it’s an ideal time for grunge bands to
get back together for one last hurrah. Grunge bands discovered by Fred
Durst—um, they might have a tougher go of it. Despite the nü-stigma
attached to Puddle of Mudd, they did have their share of hooks (remember
"She f*ckin’ hates me!") and there will always be a market for the
vintage Kurt Cobain snarl frontmen like Wes Scantlin can expertly
appropriate.
Robbers on High Street
Grand Animals
New
York Indie Rockers Robbers On High Street are back with their second
album Grand Animals.The scruffy little kids in Robbers on High Street barely look old
enough to drink, but "Guard at Your Heel" on their new one sounds like
they’re going for a Tom Waits drunk-with-Gypsies vibe, complete with
tuba and castanets. "The Fatalist" doesn’t reach as far back before
their time—it’s a dark bit of paranoid power-pop in Elvis Costello/Joe
Jackson mode and not completely unlike the Strokes.
Rooney
Calling the World
Summertime
is for Rooney lovers.On Rooney’s MySpace page, they refer to themselves as "breezy,
coastal, modernized, classic rock with strong melody, harmony, and
well-rounded musicianship… easily accessible to small children, elderly
people, and rock scholars alike." So, um, yeah, that pretty much covers
it. We’ve got nothing else. Okay, if you insist, the hard-luck L.A.
quintet should come a little bit closer to that elusive dream of soft
rock superstardom this time around. They’re only slightly less
good-looking than Maroon 5, "When Your Heart Goes Missing" plays more
like vintage Culture Club than the Beach Boys, and they’re under the
touring wing of none other than Fergie this summer. There’s absolutely
nothing menacing about them harmonizing "Don’t come around again" on the
song of the same name, nor should there be. Rooney are like Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club on pixie sticks.
Shooter
Shooter
Enjoyable
revenge thriller starring Mark Wahlberg.In the grand tradition of shoot-first,
don’t-even-bother-asking-questions later revenge thrillers like
Commando, Shooter depicts Marky Mark as an ex-sniper in
rural retirement who gets framed for an assassination attempt. Antoine
Fuqua (Training Day) keeps the retribution swift and brutal in
this enjoyable throwback.
Silverstein
Arrivals & Departures
The
full-throated rock passion that pervades all 11 songs on Arrivals &
Departures emphatically depicts a band that has... well, arrived.Silverstein’s "Giving Up" may have the most hilariously over-the-top
emo video ever made, off an album with an equally stereotypical emo
title (When Broken Is Easily Fixed). For Arrivals and Departures, they
hooked up with producer Mark Trombino, who made a couple of Blink-182
and Jimmy Eat World albums big and shiny. "Sound of the Sun," the first
single, fakes everybody out by starting off with the scary vocals
instead of the nice vocals.
Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
Billy
Corgan resurrects the Smashing Pumpkins, in name if not in spiritgish_guy1979: what’s up, Smashing Pumpkins chat room! NE1 in
here?
geekUSA:
hey, man. it’s kinda quiet.
gish_guy1979:
d00d, new album july 10
th!
Pumpkins are back! u psyched?
geekUSA:
i dunno, those demo songs that leaked were
kinda lame
gish_guy1979:
those were fake! i haven’t heard it,
but they got Roy Thomas Baker to produce some of it. he did all those
old Queen albums and some Cheap Trick and Cars albums too, so he’s
basically the perfect guy to do it.
geekUSA:
LOL do you think Billy asks him to tell
Queen stories all the time?
gish_guy1979:
LOL. Terry Date produced some of it,
and he did a bunch of Pantera albums, so maybe it’s gonna be more metal.
but officially, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were the producers.
geekUSA:
whoa. Pumpkins and Pantera both had guys OD
& almost die. :-( so who’s in the band now with Billy & Jimmy??
gish_guy1979:
of course the bassist is a girl. she
was in a band called the Halo Friendlies and she’s done some stuff with
Linda Perry
geekUSA:
remember that "What’s Up" song? nice hat
LOL
gish_guy1979:
then the new 2nd guitarist guy was in
some shoegazer band called The Lassie Foundation. i mean, Billy’s gonna
play everything on the records anyway, right? he just needs people on
stage to look cool.
geekUSA:
is he asian?
gish_guy1979:
no!
melloncolliezero:
hey, what’s up?
gish_guy1979:
hey. we were just talking about the
new Pumpkins album. you hear any of it?
geekUSA:
hey melloncollie asl?
melloncolliezero:
just those fake songs. i remember
this chat used to be really busy
gish_guy1979:
yeah, me too. i guess with Myspace and
stuff, people don’t use chat rooms as much anymore
melloncolliezero:
i guess
geekUSA:
melloncollie ASL?
Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Their
most heartfelt batch of songs since 2001's "Girls Can Tell".A.K.A. Get Yer Ga-Gas Out? Actually, that kooky album title refers to
"the sound of one of the first songs written for the record, ‘The Ghost
of You Lingers,’" according to the band. Whatever that means. Anyhoo,
the Austin indie heroes have been flirting with a commercial breakout
for a while now; Gimme Fiction’s bouncy "I Turn My Camera On" was
certainly all over the boob tube in 2005. Perhaps this is their year to
change our lives, Shins-style.
T.I.
T.I. vs. T.I.P.
T.I.
offers us a peek inside his identity crisisT.I. Vs. T.I.P. is all about the battle within T.I. himself,
he told Billboard. On a collaboration with Eminem, he advises
Marshall Mathers on how to keep Slim Shady in check by explaining how he
does it with his alter-ego T.I.P., who runs loose all over the album.
It’s the first collaboration between the two, and another first-timer,
Wyclef Jean, produced three tracks and guests on "You Know What It Is."
But virtually everyone else who appears to help T.I. has worked
with the Atlanta MC in some capacity. Justin Timberlake, whose track on
Vs. hasn’t been confirmed yet, returns the favor from T.I.’s spot on "My
Love." Jay-Z’s voice was sampled on T.I.’s "Bring ’Em Out," but the real
one shows up on "Watch What You Say to Me." Busta Rhymes, who’s on
"Hurt," did "Cannon" with T.I. for the Busta mixtape The Crown.
Nelly last showed up on T.I.’s Urban Legend and returns to the
new one on "Show It to Me." And old-school producer Mannie Fresh, the
man behind several of T.I.’s singles and remixes, handled the first
single "Big Things Poppin’ (Do It)."
Talib Kweli
Ear Drum
Hip-hop’s geographical trends create mental and physical boundaries.
Brooklyn-based MC Talib Kweli is one of the few heroes of the genre to
transcend those barriers in recent years. With Ear Drum—the
inaugural release on his own Blacksmith Music label, an imprint of
Warner Bros.—Kweli seems determined to build yet another bridge across
the great divide, recruiting Houston’s Bun B and Pimp C for "Country
Cousins," epitomizing the similarities—and differences—between the Big
Apple and the Dirty South..
Tcheka
Nu Monda
West
African Batuku music both traditional and transcendent.Like many international innovators, Manuel Lopes Andrade, a.k.a.
Tcheka, sounds safely traditional to untutored ears. But not only does
he transpose Cape Verdean beats to his guitar, but the batuku music he
reconfigures with his plaintive West African keen is largely considered
a female art form on his home island, Santiago.
Tegan & Sara
The Con
Tegan
& Sara can’t stop popping on The ConIdentical twin sister Canadian folkies with great bangs: Could these
two be any more annoyingly adorable? We were huge backers of their 2002
statement of intent If It Was You, a mostly-electric slew of
sharp, observant relationship pop—little wonder they finagled guest
spots from members of Death Cab for Cutie and the Rentals on this
one—but didn’t get the hoopla behind 2004’s mainstream, Green Day-style
breakout So Jealous. Judging by the new one’s tracklist, perhaps
they’ve teetered back to the dark side: "Knife Going In" or "Burn Your
Life Down," anyone? Making matters even more (adorably) goth, the third
high-profile guest appearance comes courtesy of AFI bassist Hunter
Burgan. Don’t hate us because you’re beautiful, T&S.
The Astronaut Farmer
The Astronaut Farmer
Billy
Bob Thornton stars as a farmer who builds a rocket.Finally, Billy Bob Thornton gets a reprieve from playing
self-loathing scumbags! His eponymous protagonist is forced to abandon
astronaut training to save the family farm, then decides to build his
own rocket on his free time. The government, suffice it to say, is not
thrilled. Harmless, inspiring stuff.
The Cribs
Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever
Indie
trio gets production help from Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.The Cribs (a trio comprised of twins and their younger brother) have
racked up some pretty good cred scores for a young indie band: They did
some shows with Death Cab for Cutie last year and they’ve got the
surprisingly hip honor of having a song in a Telus commercial. Now, for
Men’s Needs, they’ve brought in recent tourmate Alex Kapranos of Franz
Ferdinand to produce and scored a guest appearance from Lee Ranaldo of
Sonic Youth on "Be Safe."
The Hills Have Eyes 2
The Hills Have Eyes 2
Subterranean
mutants go wild.National Guardsmen training in the desert unwittingly stumble across
cabal of subterranean mutants, get systematically dismembered and raped.
Now that’s an Oscar-winning pitch if we’ve ever heard one! Series
originator Wes Craven and son Jonathan double up on this sequel to the
popular remake.
The Number 23
The Number 23
Jim
Carrey goes off the deep end in The Number 23We won’t make you circle every 23rd letter of this
paragraph to discover an eerily cryptic message about this film—"total
flop" will suffice. Jim Carrey rolled the dice trying to resurrect his
popularity by teaming with much-maligned director Joel Schumacher, but
looking at the man’s filmography, we can respect the reasoning: For
every Batman & Robin or Phone Booth, there’s a
Flatliners or Lost Boys. The problem was, Schumacher pretty
much stopped making cool, freaky R-rated thrillers after 1999’s horrific
8MM. This attempted return to form casts Carrey as a dogcatcher
(s*it you not) who is intrigued to find that the protagonist of a novel
called The Number 23 mirrors himself in many ways. He’s less
thrilled to find that said protagonist goes bonkers obsessing over the
number and offs his wife. While the resulting mind games aren’t exactly
up to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind snuff, Schumacher
still knows how to colorfully evoke dread, and Carrey’s singular
physicality is always something to behold.
The Red Chord
Prey for Eyes
Extreme
heroes The Red Chord redefine workaholicismThe Red Chord are on the road almost constantly—death metal tours
with Cannibal Corpse, with hardcore legends Converge, on Ozzfest, with
anyone who’ll take them it seems. Between all that touring and the
writing and recording of the new Red Chord album Prey for Eyes,
vocalist Guy Kozowyk finds the time to run Black Market Activities.
BMA’s got a name guaranteed to get you on a government watchlist and
more than a few worthwhile bands. Ed Gein, from Syracuse, do math metal
with an authentic backwoods-psycho atmosphere on Judas Goats and
Diesel Eaters. Engineer haven’t released their BMA debut yet, but in
the meantime Reproach will make fans of the Melvins and
Midwestern noise rock happy. Behold… the Arctopus live at the outer
limits of prog metal, writing impossibly technical instrumental
freakouts that demand to be collected under titles like
Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning. The Red Chord themselves have
wrapped Prey for Eyes in detailed artwork from Paul Romano and
unveiled a couple of new songs as vicious as anything on predecessor
Clients—of course, by playing them live. They never stop.
The Starting Line
Direction
Continuing
with their infectious melodies, The Starting Line is back.The Starting Line contributed a cover of J-Lo’s "I’m Real" (the
version with Ja Rule) to a compilation called Punk Goes Pop,
and Björk’s "Big Time Sensuality" to the related Punk Goes ’90s
collection. Their website announces that they’re recording acoustic
versions of some tracks from Direction. Are they trying to tell
us something? As definitive of a Warped Tour band as TSL may be, there’s
a pop sensation inside them that’s dying to get out.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
A
sympathetic look at Republicans in early 20th century Ireland, and two
brothers who are torn apart by anti-Brit rebellion.From 28 Days Later through Breakfast on Pluto and
Batman Begins, Cillian Murphy has established himself as a
chameleonic young presence worth watching. In this intense, Palme
d’Or-winning indie, he plays an Irish med student who fights with his
brother against the notorious Black and Tans.
They Might Be Giants
The Else
Latest
effort from TMBG features production from the Dust Brothers.As TMBG prepare Phase Two of their plan to capture the minds of our
toddlers (Here Come the 123s), their rock configuration
continues to ensnare our geeky tenth graders. The Dust Brothers (Odelay,
Paul’s Boutique) produced some of the tracks, and John Linnell
has said that others, like opener "I’m Impressed," weren’t produced by
the DBs but reflect TMBG’s working with them.
Three 6 Mafia
Last 2 Walk
Guests
on the Mafia's latest include Good Charlotte, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall,
Lil Jon and more.You could go insane trying to keep up with the sheer volume of creepy
synth-driven horrorcore coming out of Memphis, and it seems like half of
it purports to be from one-time Three 6 associates. Definitively down
with Three 6: Good Charlotte, who show up on Last 2 Walk along
with some less baffling guests: Chamillionaire (on first single "Doe Boy
Fresh"), Paul Wall, Lil Jon, Akon, Young Buck and many more.
UGK
Underground Kingz
Guests
on Underground Kingz include Three 6 Mafia, Lil Jon, Scarface, Mannie
Fresh, Too Short, T.I., Rick Ross, Slim Thugz, Sleepy Brown, Young
Jeezy, Charlie Wilson, Swizz Beatz, Andre 3000 and more.After six years and multiple delays, Bun B and Pimp C are back with a
double disc of all new material, and the guest spots come from all
directions: southern rap (T.I., Paul Wall, OutKast), the old school
(Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane), even UK grime (Dizzee Rascal), plus Young
Buck, Talib Kweli and many more. Pimp C handled much of the production,
while Lil’ Jon, Swizz Beatz, Scarface and Marley Marl handled some of
the 27 tracks.
UNKLE
War Stories
Trip-hop
kings UNKLE extend an olive branch to heshervilleWhen you imagine the typical fan of UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction,
with its guest spots from Thom Yorke and Badly Drawn Boy, he or she
probably doesn’t look much like your stereotypical fan of stoner rock
(as vague of a label as it is) or its more regional variation, desert
rock. But Chris Goss, a sort of godfather to the scene, co-produced
War Stories with UNKLE founder James Lavelle. Goss’ own band Masters
of Reality were rooted in traditional hard rock, but fuzzed-out enough
to catch on with some kids who had also soaked up punk and hardcore
influences. Goss produced albums by some of them, most notably Kyuss,
ground zero of the sound and the scene. Post-Kyuss, guitarist Josh Homme
got famous in Queens of the Stone Age and last appeared with UNKLE on
Never Never Land in 2003. Homme sings on two tracks on War
Stories, as does Ian Astbury. Way out of the desert, Astbury is best
known for fronting the Cult, and spent a couple of years as the fake Jim
Morrison in the Doors of the 21st Century.
Various: Now! 25
Now! 25
The
hits keep on rolling.Wait a sec… what the hell?! Volume 24 just came out in
late March, and that one had friggin’ Lily Allen’s "Smile." DIDN’T THAT
SONG COME OUT, LIKE, LAST WEEK? The NOW machine just keeps on
rolling, huh? Although the tracklist of this pop compendium hasn’t been
released as of press time, we predict that by installment 30 they’ll be
compiling songs that won’t top the charts until a month after the
album’s release. Now that’s meta!
Various: The Rough Guide to Salsa
The Rough Guide to Salsa
A
global exploration of Salsa.Not to be confused with previous Rough Guides to salsa dance, salsa
dura or the salsa of Puerto Rico, Pablo Yglesias’ compilation sets out
to establish the international reach of salsa, tracing its establishment
in New York and Puerto Rico back to Congolese rumba via Kekele and
forward around the globe.
Velvet Revolver
Libertad
There’s
nothing dysfunctional about Velvet Revolver. Boo!Who would have thought that 2/5 of the original Guns N’ Roses plus
Scott Weiland would equal a happy, profitable, professional partnership?
Slash, Duff and the skeleton of the ex-Stone Temple Pilots frontman
appear to have ditched their infamous vices in favor the sort of simple,
serpentine grooves we wish Chris Cornell would rock again. Although this
sophomore effort was originally intended to be a concept album, the
veterans realized they were too old for that crap—although not too old
for scarves; as Aerosmith have proven time and time again, you’re
never too old for scarves—and kept things lean and mean. If "She
Builds Quick Machines" is any indication, we can probably expect three
or four lowlife rockers for every "Fall to Pieces" Bic-flicker, just the
right ratio for a modern rock titan. Wonder if there are any plans to
take Army of Anyone on tour… they could use the help.
Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd
Still Life With Commentator
A
lyrical, darkly comic transmedia oratorio examining our relationship to
the media in a time of war.Lefties won’t learn much new about our infotainment-saturated culture
from this soundtrack to a multimedia piece with Ibrahim Quraishi. But
Ladd’s poetic musings merge with Iyer’s hypnotic keyboard clusters, a
deep bass groove and versatile programmed rhythms to create a sound that
more than embodies the critique it attempts.
Weeds
Season Two
Season
two of the Showtime hit.Hard to write this one up, because we still haven’t seen the second
season and don’t want to spoiler ourselves to death by paraphrasing
synopses. We’ll just say the first season of this Showtime series—about
single suburban mom Mary Louise-Parker’s transformation into a ganja
guru—is even funnier than Entourage at its best, so high hopes.
Pun intended.
Widespread Panic
Choice Cuts: The Capricorn Years 1991-1999
First-ever
compilation from one of the most successful jam bands.For a band whose name conjures chaos and dread, this sextet of
Athens, GA old schoolers play music that’s the polar opposite. Their
bluesy, amphitheater-friendly take on Southern rock has been soothing
H.O.R.D.E. types (c’mon, you remember H.O.R.D.E… okay, Bonnaroo types)
since the mid ’80s. The members personally culled this tracklist from
WP’s five album run on the now-defunct Capricorn label. Wonder if they
ever toured with 311. The sweet leaf brings all sorts together…
Zodiac
Zodiac
David
Fincher’s Midas touch is restored with ZodiacWe could launch into a bitter diatribe about the fleeting American
attention span here, using Zodiac’s meh box office performance as
Exhibit #1, but hey, CSI and its offshoots constantly dominate
the Nielsens. So other than the protracted running time—which doesn’t
seem to stop anybody from lining up to gawk at Pirates or Spider-Men—why
did everybody pass on this tense, evocative procedural? Well, for one
thing (major, major spoiler alert) the Frisco serial killer depicted
herein was never caught, and we love resolution and retribution (see:
Hostel). So this David Fincher-helmed gem—we weren’t worried about
you after Panic Room, bud, not for a second—sought to capture the
mania of the men doomed to not capture the Zodiac Killer (played
by Jake Gyllenhall, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo) and accomplished
that rather brilliantly. Their expenditure of brainpower and energy
yields infinitesimal results. Rarely has so much introspection been
afforded to the notion of futility in a big-budget Hollywood flick. It’s
a trend we can get behind.
Labels: New_Releases
