‘Wall•E’ movie review (Baltimore Citypaper)

Mike Judge’s 2006 Idiocracy pictures a world in which garbage is stacked to the skies, the Earth is polluted beyond repair, and humans have morphed into brainless, TV-addicted lardasses who depend on machines to assist them in everything from mobility to bowel evacuation. Amazingly, this is the exact same world in which Disney/Pixar’s new WALL-E is set. The high-level horror depicted in WALL-E–in which a Wal-Mart-like megacorp has convinced the world’s population to buy buy buy itself into obedient numbness, creating a waste-disposal dilemma so enormous that people have fled into outer space, leaving robots behind to clean up the mess–is stunning in both its apocalyptic harshness and its anti-consumerist import. The dark milieu, however, allows the movie’s titular star to be that much more adorable. All the other clean-up bots have been overworked into disrepair and now, some several centuries after humans decamped to the outer reaches of the galaxy, WALL-E is the only one left, dutifully going about the Sisyphean task of compacting trash and piling it into miles-high edifices. Over the years, the little guy has developed a personality from repeated viewings of Hello, Dolly!, so when a feminized exploration bot lands nearby, the rusty little garbage collector gets predictably enamored. Adventures–both on earth and in outer space–ensue. The highly physical comedy at work in WALL-E combines with the wide-eyed “humanity” of the little machine for genuine laughs and character-driven empathy. That this is achieved during a largely wordless first half is a testament to Pixar’s highly skilled animators. That it’s achieved in a setting even more terrifying and dismal than the one Judge envisioned for Idiocracy is a testament to the fact that WALL-E is smarter, funnier, and sweeter than any recent Pixar production.

First appeared July 2, 2008 in Baltimore Citypaper.

Amos Lee: Last Days at the Lodge CD review (Blurt)

If Amos Lee’s 2005 debut was the cross-marketed phenom that introduced him to baristas and coffee moms across the country, and its 2006 follow-up proved that he actually could deliver the soul-flecked rootsy goods in a legitimate fashion, then Last Days at the Lodge is where he flexes both his creativity and his credibility. Producer Don Was brings his predictably solid skills to bear on Lee’s sound, amplifying both its most accessible (“Listen”) and heartfelt (“What’s Been Going On”) attributes. The rich production, along with musical assistance from all-stars like Doyle Bramhall, Jr. and Spooner Oldham, positions Last Days as a record that’s as ambitious as it is well-funded. Thankfully, Lee loses neither his voice nor his soul in the process. For such a young man, he evinces a surprisingly well-worn singing style that’s as evocative of ‘70s soul as it is singer-songwriter introspection. Wielding that voice in tandem with these beefy tunes results in an album that’s both warmer and stronger than a double latte.

Standout Tracks: “Jails and Bombs,” “Won’t Let Me Go”

First appeared June 2008 in Blurt.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.

Melvins: Nude With Boots CD review (Blurt)

Pissing on expectations is something the Melvins have gotten pretty good at. But Nude With Boots is perhaps the group’s most surprising record yet. After expanding their ranks to a quartet by absorbing the post-metal duo Big Business and proceeding to demolish intestinal tracts worldwide with their new, double-drummer lineup, the Melvins have released an album that actually comes across as kinda weak. Not “weak” as in “lame,” but “weak” as in “lacking strength.”

As one of the few heavy rock groups who can get their fans to tolerate hour-long noise-blasts and experimental electronics, it remains to be seen if those same fans can swallow the bland, classic-rock urges that manifest themselves on Nude. A few cuts – “Dog Island,” “The Savage Hippy” – find the Melvins going for the jugular, but the majority of this disc is surprisingly uninspired and tame. Wielding two exceptional drummers should result in an overwhelming percussive attack, but the straightforward, four-on-the-floor dreck of “The Stupid Creep” and “Nude With Boots” would be unacceptably bland even from the White Stripes. Combining that with the reedy, downmixed guitar work of Buzz Osborne and the most threatening band on the planet has suddenly become impotent. Which is quite unexpected indeed.

Standout Tracks: “Dog Island,” “The Savage Hippy”

First appeared June 2008 in Blurt.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.

Dethklok show preview (Orlando Weekly)

A recent show on Dethklok’s headlining tour was canceled due to a fire in the building. That’s very metal. But in prime Dethklok fashion – by the way, this is a cartoon death metal band we’re talking about here – the conflagration was caused not by errant pyrotechnics or sword-sparks, but supposedly by a spilled beer on the mixing board. Such is the way for the Adult Swim metalheads who have made the leap from crudely drawn 2-D animation on TV to crudely drawn animation on a really big video screen. Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small has corralled a group of real live musicians (including weird-rock guitar legend Mike Keneally) to accompany him behind that screen and bash out cuts like “Bloodtrocuted” and “Crush My Battle Opponent’s Balls.” While the idea of paying to watch a cartoon on a giant screen may seem ridiculous to some, we only have one thing to say: “Release the kittens!”

First appeared June 26, 2008 in Orlando Weekly.

“The Love Guru” movie review (Baltimore Citypaper)

Any movie in which Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba come off as the most relaxed and natural actors is the kind of movie that’s best avoided. Sadly, that’s far from the worst thing about The Love Guru. Mike Myers is infinitely pleased with himself, and doubtlessly convinced of his comic genius, and thus feels little need to do anything in this disaster of a comedy besides tell an endless string of dick jokes and give the camera knowing, wise-ass grins. He can’t even be bothered to keep his offensive “Indian” accent intact for more than half a scene, much less develop a plotline worth reiterating here. While a comedian like Will Ferrell can make one-note comedy work in the audience’s favor, Myers has none of Ferrell’s loose shamelessness. Instead, his current idea of humor consists mainly of midgets, puerile puns, references to Wayne’s World, dick jokes and, well, dick jokes. It goes without saying that the shameful stereotyping Myers engages in here is tasteless, but it’s also so lacking in affection you can almost feel a bit of passive-aggressiveness in its harshness. Plus, did he really have to go and pick Ben Kingsley to play a character called Guru Tugginmypudha? (Told you about the puns!) The ham-fisted Bollywood mockery–despite featuring Alba in a sari–falls flat, the jabs at celebrity spirituality are toothless, the laughs are few and far between and, unless the only exposure you’ve had to Indian culture is Apu, the rancid racism that’s the movie’s central joke just makes it all too much to endure.

First appeared June 25, 2008 in Baltimore Citypaper.

Seun Kuti: Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80 CD review (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)

In an interview earlier this year with the Independent, Seun Kuti bluntly stated, “I’m crazy. My father was too.” There’s something heartening about the progeny of a famous musician clearly stating an alliance with his elders, but the youngest son of Fela goes even further than simply picking up the politically minded, wild-man torch of his dad. Pivoting away from the attempts made by his older brother Femi to modernize the sound of Afrobeat for contemporary audiences (and Common fans), Seun fully and deeply indulges his heritage. Not only does the gruff-voiced 25-year-old offer a strikingly solid imitation of his dad’s rolling vocal style and circular sax-playing but he also breathes new life into the big-band funk of Fela’s last group, Egypt 80. That frenetic orchestra has been oiling its funk machine for the past decade or so on stages in Lagos, and its stunning tightness here is as refreshing as it is explosive. Seun lets the Afrobeat run wild on his debut record, and most of the cuts clock in at the seven- or eight-minute mark. While this is still a fraction of Fela’s penchant for album-length “songs,” it’s also nearly twice as long as many of Femi’s more pop-oriented numbers. Further, Seun doesn’t allow modern production techniques to polish off any of the rickety rough edges, so the horn lines blast through with all due force while a chorus of vocalists strains to keep up. In true Kuti family fashion, there’s not a moment on this album that sounds like it couldn’t have been recorded live, and in that, one finds the truest — and most admirable — homage to Seun’s family line.

First appeared June 25, 2008 in Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.

Grand Magus: Iron Will CD review (Blurt)

These days, it’s a great time to be a metalhead. Correction: These days, it’s a great time to have been a metalhead. Preferably 20 or 25 years ago. Because if that’s your frame of reference for what heavy metal means, you’ve gotta be loving the tidal wave of bands who feel exactly the same way. The “Golden Era” was that beautiful point in time when Priest and Maiden ruled above all, and upstarts like Metallica and Slayer were beginning to change the game. It was right before the hair bands sucked all the credibility out of the genre, and grunge sucked all the life out of it. Metal enjoyed legitimacy, commercial success and, most importantly, an incredibly diverse underground.

Stockholm-based Grand Magus synthesize a good number of elements from that Golden Era underground, but are unique in their unbalanced devotion to the sound of monitor-mounters like Manowar and Maiden. There’s no modular thrashiness here; Iron Will is all bruisingly heavy rock, infused with grandiosity and full-throated vocals. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering that Grand Magus is headed up by JB Christofferson (Spiritual Beggars), a man who has essentially been keeping the flame alive for the hard rock part of the NWOBHM equation for the past decade. Still, this power trio succeeds on far more than nostalgia, proving that it’s possible to evoke metal’s golden age without shamelessly aping it.

Standout Tracks: “Silver Into Steel,” “Like the Oar Strikes the Water”

First appeared June 2008 in Blurt.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.

Yellow Hand: Yellow Hand CD review (Blurt)

Oh, to be a band rescued from obscurity by a preeminent reissue label like Fallout, only to have your legacy be defined by the accomplishments of another band. Such is the case with West Coast roots-rock ensemble Yellow Hand. The sextet must have been supremely confident in the potential for success of this, their only record. Released in 1970 – at the very height of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s fame – Yellow Hand could claim that half of its songs were written and demoed by Stephen Stills and Neil Young for Buffalo Springfield, but, at the time, never previously released… by anyone.

What machinations of Hollywood fate that led to these guys lucking into these songs is anyone’s guess now, but needless to say, Yellow Hand failed to capitalize on their coup. They did, however, do the “lost Buffalo Springfield songs” (as well as an un-lost Delaney and Bonnie song) justice. While never nailing the warm, harmonic heights of Stills, Young and Richie Furay, the four singers in Yellow Hand do an admirable job. The folksy elation of cuts like “We’ll See” sound like what they are – Buffalo Springfield leftovers – but the Yellow Hand originals like “Home” tend to a warmer, more rustic vibe that’s surprisingly fully-formed for a group that had to rely on other people to write more than half of their first record.

Standout Tracks: “We’ll See,” “Down to the Wire”

First appeared June 2008 in Blurt.

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The Sugar Oaks feature story (Orlando Weekly)

There’s a song on the new three-track Sugar Oaks single called “Very Sparrow.” It is, like most of the other songs by the Sugar Oaks, a combination of crystalline clarity and muted, soulful pop melancholy. Its gently delivered melodies float above spacious instrumentation. It sounds like the quirky, laid-back pop for which the group is known. It was also, until very recently, a complete pain in the ass.

“I actually wrote that song at least five years ago,” says Sugar Oaks singer-guitarist-songwriter Eric Hayden. “The chord changes were the same [as they are now], the lyrics were more or less the same … but it was really, really folky, and we could never get it right with the Sugar Oaks. Every time, we’d try something new and it wouldn’t work.”

“We’d tried over and over again to do it live,” says guitarist Christopher Belt, “but we were never able to do it. But about a year ago, we tried it at practice and came up with an arrangement that worked and it finally came together. And now, because Jon [Kraft, drummer] is also the engineer for our records, that song finally got fleshed out in the studio.”

The addition of Kraft to the Sugar Oaks lineup last August has turned out to be a pivotal decision in the band’s cautious evolution. As an uncredited engineer on the group’s debut EP – last year’s Red Grapes in the City – Kraft helped the Sugar Oaks get a firm grip on how to make their soulful pop more effective.

“I guess I’m kind of the poor man’s arranger,” laughs Kraft with all humility.

“But, seriously, having that engineer’s ear is really helpful for the songwriting process,” says bassist Matt Gersting.

Kraft is the fourth person to sit on the drum stool for the band, having taken it over from Gersting after the release of Red Grapes in one of many lineup changes over the years. The band’s roots go back to 1999, as a duo featuring Hayden and keyboardist-vocalist Soraya Zaumeyer under the name Bear Country. (“We opened for Cub Country one time at the Social,” laughs Belt. “Actually, we changed our name right before that show,” corrects Hayden. “It would have been ridiculous.”) As the lineup expanded with the eventual addition of Gersting and Belt (and many others during the process), their sound also matured.

“It was more acoustic when it was Bear Country – a little slower, a little more downbeat,” says Hayden. “We noticed the sound was changing, so it seemed like a good time to change the name.”

The band’s focus also sharpened, resulting in a more practiced – if no less organic – approach to their music that has culminated in the rich and distinctive textures of songs like “Very Sparrow.” And while that song may have taken the band a while to nail down, it’s telling that they actually took the time to get it right.

“When we finally had to create something that we were accountable for, rather than just writing songs and playing shows, we had to start thinking about things differently,” says Belt. “It was a tremendous learning process, but it had a lot to do with how we coalesced into the band that we are now.”

First appeared June 19, 2008 in Orlando Weekly.

Check out the Sugar Oaks website, because they’re great.

Meeting Resistance DVD review (Detroit Metrotimes)

Somehow, Meeting Resistance lives up to its provocative tagline — “What would you do if America was invaded?” While this documentary by Steve Connors and Molly Bingham doesn’t ever come out and explicitly endorse the actions of the suicide bombers and guerrilla fighters involved in attacks against American soldiers, it does run right up to the line of justification by infusing humanity onto those involved and by spelling out the many reasons why they feel compelled to continue working against what they consider to be an invasion of their country and an attack on their faith. What’s most immediately striking about the people profiled by Connors and Bingham is their resolute ordinariness. Teachers, professors and laborers have been turned into militants, and their loose alliance with ex-soldiers and jihadists seems borne not of extremist affinities but instead from the basic ignominy of having one’s homeland invaded. In other words, the primary point pushed by the filmmakers is that this movement is a nationalist resistance, not a battleground of faith-based ideology. That this is a radical perspective is sadly disappointing, and it’s quite likely that Meeting Resistance will be seen as some sort of pro-radical sympathy piece. In fact, it’s doing the job that our national media consistently fails to do: giving the dramatic events happening in Iraq a balanced human perspective.

First appeared June 19, 2008 in Detroit Metrotimes.

Buy this DVD on Amazon.com.