Monday, May 20 2013
Sarah Dash: 12 May 2013 - New York
Few artists can navigate jazz, disco, glam funk, and Broadway with equal aplomb, but Sarah Dash proved to be a remarkable exception at 54 Below.
Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine
Monaco is a stylish heist game that’ll make you wonder why there are so few heist games.
Put a Brown Wig on Lindsay Lohan and You Don’t Get Elizabeth Taylor, You Get: ‘Liz & Dick’
There's nothing remotely reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor in Lindsay Lohan, even in full make-up.
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
Daft Punk unleash their inner disco auteurs and release a colossal, self-indulgent mess as their comeback album. And make it work.
Mikal Cronin: MCII
On MCII, Mikal Cronin isn't so much spearheading the current garage-rock revival, but rather redefining what the genre means altogether.
‘It’s Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It’
A pretty good food book from a guy who doesn't enjoy cooking, will eat almost anything, is cheap, and doesn't much care for food books.
Kenny Chesney: Life on a Rock
Life on a Rock ultimately seems less like a beach party album than Chesney stretching out with his ghosts.
Kopecky Family Band: Kids Raising Kids
Kids Raising Kids is both commendably varied and sonically of a piece, which is no easy feat. It’s clear that the Kopecky Family Band has ambition, and while its reach exceeds its grasp more often than not here, this is definitely a group worth keeping an eye on.
Six Feet Under: Unborn
Six Feet Under is back in an attempt to reclaim the glory of the band's early years. Will veteran Chris Barnes succeed, or is this death metal dog too old to learn new tricks?
Friday, May 17 2013
The Pleasures of Collecting and… Grafting: ‘The Fruit Hunters’
The reason he collects fruit, Richard Campbell elucidates, is not only because he seeks variety and pleasure in tasting, but also because he sees the risks of industrial farming and monoculture.
‘Stories We Tell’: Sarah Polley Ponders Movies and Truths
This is a story of deception and romance, of family and making movies, and it shapes Stories We Tell, because it occasions a series of self-reflections, revelations, and reactions, all stories in themselves.
‘Shanghai Noon’ / ‘Shanghai Knights’
Though they're not as fleet-footed as Chan's best Hong Kong features, Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights are probably his most aristically successful American productions.
‘Erased’: A Father’s Past is Inescapable, or Is It?
Although Erased doesn't portray it particularly well, the question it raises is an intriguing one: who controls anyone's life narrative?
Papo & Yo
Papo & Yo is an exorcism of sorts, a way for a survivor of childhood abuse to deal with his demons. This is a game as therapy.
‘A Delicate Truth’, An Ugly Business
The moral outrage felt by the Foreign Service whistleblowers in John le Carré's 23rd novel isn't matched by their corrupted superiors.
Capitalism’s Self-Corrections: ‘Repo Man’
The Los Angeles imagined by this delightfully dark movie is one where the repo man picks up the Reaganite economy’s table scraps—and in the process self-corrects for capitalism’s shortcomings.
The Breeders: LSXX (Last Splash 20th Anniversary Reissue)
The Breeders' Last Splash turns 20 and gets the deluxe edition treatment. Is it worth it? It comes down to how much of a fan you are.
Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood: Black Pudding
Black Pudding is a souvenir record for Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood fans, an album full of theme songs for gunslingers, bluesman and desert-wandering derelicts.
Joshua Redman: Walking Shadows
Joshua Redman's album of ballads definitely has more to it than meets the ear.
