Aug 23, 2010
Music
Web Exclusive
Egalitarian songwriting and the lack of a front person may presume the lack of a focal point. Grass Widow, a San Francisco post-punk trio that favors structure and form over grating guitar and speed, use this approach to their benefit, collaboratively writing songs and sharing vocal duties.
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Aug 20, 2010
Music
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
In a collaboration that began with the echoes of old Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood records, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have completed their third shared album, this one delving deeper into the Americana that Campbell has been exploring since her 2006 solo album, Milk White Sheets.
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Aug 19, 2010
Music
Web Exclusive
The debut full-length from this Parisian chamber pop trio picks up where 2008’s highly touted Pop de Chambre EP left off. The band is named for The Beatles album of the same name, and the Fab Four comparisons are apt to a degree.
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DC
Written by Eric Trautmann; art by Don Kramer
Aug 18, 2010
Comic Books
Web Exclusive
Masked superheroes taking on a secret society bent on bringing on the apocalypse? Throw in a healthy dose of espionage, crazy sci-fi style hi-tech, and ancient magics, and you have the recipe for JSA vs. Kobra, one of the standout miniseries from the past year that’s now been collected in trade.
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Aug 18, 2010
Music
Boston Spaceships
With Boston Spaceships, Robert Pollard has found his best band since Guided By Voices. Consisting of Pollard, Chris Slusarenko (Guided By Voices), and John Moen (The Decemberists), Boston Spaceships is releasing its fourth album in just a little over two years, and the band seems to be hitting its stride.
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Aug 17, 2010
DVDs
Web Exclusive
A concert film begins with the plug being pulled on the show due to the singer’s encouragement for the crowd to move closer. This might sound like standard rock-flick stuff until you consider that the singer was Leonard Cohen in 1972.
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Aug 17, 2010
Music
Web Exclusive
Robert Pollard’s new release is a mix of everything you like about Uncle Bob—rip roaring rockers, Tommy-esque melodies, and even a big quasi-ballad that could have been a hit on 1999’s Do The Collapse.
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Aug 15, 2010
Music
Neil Hamburger
Neil Hamburger’s is the kind of act that Andy Kaufman would have wished he’d thought of first. Gregg Turkington portrays Neil Hamburger, a blowhard, old-school comedian who is constantly clearing his throat and regularly berating his increasingly agitated audiences.
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Aug 13, 2010
Music
Web Exclusive
How many “greatest hits” does Time Flies… 1994-2009 make for Oasis? Three? One every five years or so? What is the reason for this? Particularly since the choices on each of these collections, Familiar To Millions (2000), Stop The Clocks (2006), and now Time Flies (2010) don’t vary greatly from each other (except that Familiar is a live album).
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Aug 12, 2010
Video Games
Issue #32 - Summer 2010 - Wasted on the Youth
Even though it didn’t receive a domestic release in 2000, the Nintendo 64 shooter Sin & Punishment has since become a cult classic. Its release on WiiWare a couple of years ago cemented its reputation amongst gamers. A decade later, the sequel has arrived, and while it doesn’t radically change what made the original work, it is a challenging, fun, and welcome addition to the Wii platform.
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