review Archive
14 Mar 2009
Album Review: The Fuzztones – Horny as Hell
Now there’s a concept: take classic garage-punk songs from the 1960s (plus a fistful of Fuzztones originals) and put together new arrangements that add…wait for it…a horn section. No kidding. […]
13 Mar 2009
Album Review: Fluttr Effect — Marking Time
This disc gets off to a good start. The instrumentation is varied and intriguing; tempos shift and keep the listener on his or her toes. But the band’s shtick seems […]
12 Mar 2009
Album Review: DJ Envy & Red Cafe — The Co-op
On first listen, my attention was grabbed by a track (or “skit,” as it’s called on the disc) in which a character named DJ Death Murder Homicide rattles off every […]
12 Mar 2009
Concert Review: Japanese Motors, Raleigh NC 03/11/09
A quick listen — heck, even a careful, critical series of listens — to “Single Fins & Safety Pins,” the latest single from Japanese Motors, would give most people the […]
11 Mar 2009
Album Review: Cradle of Filth — Thornography
This is some very silly music. The first track “Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan,” comes in with a bombastic movie-soundtrack vibe, all robed-choruses and scratching cellos. […]
10 Mar 2009
DVD Review: Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven — The First Annual Camp Out Live at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace
OK, here’s the thing: I like Cracker. And I really like Camper Van Beethoven. Camper’s genre-blending of Eastern ethnic sounds with, well, everything from C&W to punk to bluegrass was […]
08 Mar 2009
Album Review: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians — Stranger Things
Edie Brickell is back. Actually she never left. While she recorded and played with New Bohemians in the early 90s, she dropped the band for her ’94 and ’03 releases. […]
07 Mar 2009
Album Review: B.G. — The Heart of Tha Streetz Vol 2 – I Am What I Am
In 2006, intentional mangling of words (anything-izzle) and “creative” spelling are the hiphop equivalent of a rocker bellowing “Hello, Cleveland!” Fans of more-of-the same are in for a treat with […]
06 Mar 2009
Album Review: Steve Bertrand — Pain is a Megaphone
Guest review by Annelise Kopp Pain is a Megaphone? On the album cover, Bertrand sulks introspectively. Maybe he’s regretting having doomed his career with such a terrible album name, or […]
06 Mar 2009
Album Review: Bargain Music — American Born
To a rock and roller’s ears, it’s often difficult to discern the difference between an earnest effort from a singer/songwriter and parody or mockery. In perhaps the same way that […]