22. The Church, “Under the Milky Way” When Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi were brought onboard to produce the Church’s fifth album, Starfish, they sought to shift the Australian band away from the soothing, swirling psychedelia that was their defining … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 22 – 20
Launching a two-man movie review program in 1990 meant our weekly effort followed the template set by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. There was no question about it. That included the occasional creation of themed shows. In the case of … Continue reading From the Archive — Gremlins 2: The New Batch
I turn now, as I do on occasion, to the stockpile of songs I once gratefully downloaded from a blog called Little Hits. The page is long-gone, lost to the misty whims of digital media. But at the time I … Continue reading One for Friday: The Scruffs, “She Say Yea”
The Beguiled, the new film from director Sofia Coppola, is based on a novel written by Thomas Cullinan, originally published in 1966. Realistically, though, it probably owes more to the first attempt at taking the story from page to screen: … Continue reading Now (and Then) Playing: The Beguiled
When I stop to really think about the state of modern movies, one shortcoming is perplexing above all others. How is it that there are so few creations that evidence an abundant, overwhelming, crushing love of moviemaking itself? We’re now … Continue reading Now Playing: Baby Driver
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. Patriotism never tasted so good. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Beers I Have Known” tag. Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Surly Brewing Co. #Merica
The title character of the new film Okja is a “super-pig.” In the bizarre, futuristic (though set in modern-day) vision of writer-director Bong Joon-Ho, an American corporation launches a publicity stunt competition to have odd, porcine animals — supposedly discovered in Chile, though that assertion is suspect from the jump — raised by individuals scattered all across the globe. After a decade, the creatures are to be evaluated in a glorified pageant before beings added to the assembly line of food production. Bong renders his story at a mad careen that resembles an inability to entirely setting on a general … Continue reading Now Playing: Okja
25. Soft Cell, “Tainted Love” According to David Ball, the synthesizer player in the duo Soft Cell, he was familiar with song “Tainted Love” from its venerated place in the Northern Soul club scene in U.K. in the nineteen-seventies. Originally … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 25 – 23
This is a short one (it was originally offered as part of a set of capsule reviews), but it represents the first time I wrote about an Edgar Wright movie. In part because of the hit-and-run nature of the review, I didn’t write about his direction much. Truthfully, it wasn’t until Wright’s next film that his visual acumen and storytelling ingenuity really started to dazzle me. While I will elaborate in a few days, I’ll promptly acknowledge that I’m revisiting this particular piece because Wright has just delivered what I’m confident will shake out as one of the best films of … Continue reading From the Archive: Hot Fuzz
The Screaming Blue Messiahs were a blast. More specifically, just about any track from either of their first two full-lengths — both of which sat snugly in the music stacks when I arrived at my college radio station in the late-nineteen-eighties — was a blast of bristling rock ‘n’ roll energy in the midst of a playlist. I don’t think anyone at our station would have held up the band as some pinnacle artist, transforming the landscape of college rock music nor issuing records that we knew — just knew — would be enduring classics. They weren’t R.E.M. or the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Screaming Blue Messiahs, “I Can Speak American”
Coffee for Two 