10. Beabadoobee – Fake It Flowers [Dirty Hit] Fake It Flowers, the debut from the British singer-songwriter Bea Kristi, is such an earnest homage to the 1990s that it’s hard to find fault with it. To say the album is… Read More
Ishirō Honda is perhaps best remembered for co-writing and directing the original Godzilla (1954) for the Japanese film studio Toho. However, he went on to direct several more popular entries in the wider Godzilla franchise, as well as a variety… Read More
By the close of 1980, punk rock had a body count. Dave Alexander (the Stooges), Darby Crash (Germs), Ian Curtis (Joy Division), Peter Laughner (Pere Ubu), Billy Murcia (New York Dolls), Malcolm Owens (the Ruts), and Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols)—all… Read More
From the opening bars of “Suction Prints”, we knew we had entered The World of Captain Beefheart and that was exactly where we wanted to be. There it was, that unmistakable fast ‘n bulbous sound, the sudden shifts of meter… Read More
Great seventh albums are a rare phenomenon. For a band even to stay together long enough to create a discography seven LPs deep would seem to run contrary to the fast-burn Dionysian spirit of rock ‘n’ roll and fly in… Read More
Sometimes a filmmaker can match their material almost too well. Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin’s 2018 Broadway musical The Prom is a high-energy comedy about big-city cluelessness and small-town small-mindedness whose braided humor and earnestness make for a heady concoction.… Read More
Even if it seems like the Grinch and Scrooge conspired to ruin the 2020 holidays by spreading the coronavirus months ago, leave it to Heather Maloney to provide the rightful remedy with Christmas Anyway. A global pandemic helped push the… Read More
Indie-pop singer-songwriter Lux Beauregard released her debut single titled “Fireworks,” a hypnotic indie track set to cement her rise as one of the most promising indie artists of our new era. Her lyrical confidence on “Fireworks” is matched by the… Read More
10. Peel Dream Magazine – Agitprop Alterna [Slumberland] Fully in dream-pop/soft shoegaze mode, the New York-based band Peel Dream Magazine’s second album further expands their sound until it’s big-sky, widescreen-epic big. Their synths are clearly Stereolab-influenced, the noisy guitars beg for My… Read More
The night is coming down across most of the western world, cold winds rising while rolling waves of COVID lockdown seem inevitable. NIHITI’s new album provides an enthralling maximalist/minimalist backdrop to the faltering of the world’s energies. I’ve spent past… Read More