Music In Review

It’s the movie that launched at least 30 sequels, but the original has rarely been seen in the U.S. For most Americans, Godzilla: King of the Monsters started the franchise in 1956, and things devolved from there: from the barely comprehensible mashup of Raymond Burr attempting to interact with Japanese footage to badly dubbed city-stomping […]

Directed by Kenneth Branagh. HBO Films. With Henry V in 1989, Kenneth Branagh burst onto the world cinema scene as a combination Orson Welles (theatre enfant terrible who directs and stars in his first major film while in his twenties) and Laurence Olivier (choosing the same play as Olivier did for his first of several […]

Directed by Anton Corbijn. The Miriam Collection. When Anton Corbijn, best known for his work as a rock photographer and music video director, announced plans to film the story of Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, anticipation amongst Joy Division followers immediately rose, for although there has always been a great deal of familiarity with […]

Directed by Julien Temple. Parallel Films/Sony Legacy. Joe Strummer was a son of a British diplomat, boarding school bully, bohemian, busker, scoundrel, field general, passionate soul, survivor, obsessive lyricist, cheerleader, wandering beatnik, father and punk warlord. Director Julien Temple excellently weaves the complex and often contradictory lines about the former frontman and mouthpiece for the […]

Album by Freedy Johnston Singing Magnet Records Singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston is a strange artist. His last studio record, Right Between the Promises, was released in 2001. Since then, he has released an album of unreleased material, The Way I Were: 4-Track Demos, 1986-1992 (2004), and a solo concert album, Live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop (2006). […]

Universal Has there yet been a remake of a genre classic that’s better than the original? Now they’re trying it with Creature From the Black Lagoon, slated for release next year. Do yourself a summertime favor and see all three Creature features from the 1950s, on this nifty two-disk set from Universal’s Legacy Collection series. […]

Elodie Lauten Unseen Worlds In the current world of modern composition, no movement has been more influential than minimalism. With the canon of bona fide first-generation minimalism set almost in stone with the big four (La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass), not much is left undiscovered. However, much less examined is […]

Director/Producer: Steve Cantor Stick Figure Productions/Zeitgeist Films/HBO Documentary Films “It’s so strange to me that anyone would ever think that a work of art shouldn’t be disturbing or shouldn’t be invasive. It is to disturb, it is to make you think, it is to make you feel. If my work doesn’t disturb, from time to […]

Album by Gas Kompakt The sound of Gas is tough to push into an established subgenre corner. Too stagnant to be “techno,” yet too mobile to be “ambient,” Gas elegantly moved beyond both genres with a certain otherness that seems to be neither. Closely linked to the already well-defined German minimal techno sound, artist/musician/thinker Wolfgang […]

July 2, Crabs Stadium The Humboldt Crabs bested the Humboldt Steelheads in both games of a doubleheader Wednesday night. Despite the losses, the Steelheads are shaping up to be a strong baseball team – made up of local college students, the team is full of scrap and quickness. There were more than 1,000 appreciative fans […]

Directed by Gary Hustwit Plexifilm A documentary where a bunch of graphic designers sit around giving their thoughts on the merits and deficiencies of a typeface would seem to be a sure recipe for boredom, but Gary Hustwit’s film takes this potentially dry subject and fills it with life and argument. Hustwit, who has a […]

Album by Weezer Geffen/Interscope The “clang clang clang clang” that began Weezer’s 1996 album Pinkertonheralded a masterpiece of tortured masculinity. They’ve never managed to release a record as complex, rewarding or fun since. And with the release of their latest self-titled album – this time known as the Red Album, if you’re keeping track – […]