Music Review – Our Lost Infantry, “The New Art History”

Artist: Our Lost Infantry
Album: The New Art History
Label: Deep Elm Records
RIYL: Brand New, Arcade Fire, Explosions In The Sky, Grammatics, She Bears

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music Review – Big Awesome, “Birdfeeder EP”

Artist: Big Awesome
Album: Birdfeeder EP
Label: Self Released
RIYL: Algernon Cadwallader, Minus The Bear, Samiam

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Music Review – Dandelion War, “We Were Always Loyal To Lost Causes”

Artist: Dandelion War
Album: We Were Always Loyal To Lost Causes
Label: Deep Elm Records
RIYL: Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, Appleseed Cast, Moonlit Sailor, Antlers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music Review: Big Awesome, Birdfeeder EP

Artist: Big Awesome
Album: Birdfeeder EP
Label: Self Released
RIYL: Algernon Cadwallader, Minus The Bear, Samiam

With a name like Big Awesome it’s easy to assume they could be an Andrew WK party band. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Mixing melody with the grit of punk rock, Big Awesome’s EP takes hold and after four songs you wanting more.

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Music Review: The Dandelion War, We Were Always Loyal To Lost Causes

Artist: Dandelion War
Album: We Were Always Loyal To Lost Causes
Label: Deep Elm Records
RIYL: Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, Appleseed Cast, Moonlit Sailor, Antlers

It’s easy to get lost in the wasteland of post-rock, ambient, shoegaze bands. They seem to have saturated the music scene in the past few years, I blame Explosions In The Sky and Friday Night Lights. While most of these bands are capable in creating lush, ambient landscapes, most of these sounds bleed from one band to another making it hard for anyone to stand out. Enter Oakland, California’s Dandelion War. While they are very much in the same vein of these bands, Dandelion War seem to take the best elements of this sound and craft them into something wholly their own.

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Music Review: The Keystone Kids – Things Get Shaky

Artist: The Keystone Kids

Album: Things Get Shaky

Label: Deep Elm Records

RIYL: The Postal Service, Stars, Death Cab For Cutie, Public Radio, Rilo Kiley

Pennsylvania natives, singer/songwriter/pianist Carly Comando and punk rocker Ryan O’Donnell (Yo Man Go) team up for a collaborative project called The Keystone Kids. Their debut EP Things Get Shaky is, in many ways,  a fun and charming experiment with many highs. However, the electronic element drags the experiment down and as a whole making Things Get Shaky a frustrating experience depending on your musical preferences.

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Music Review – The Keystone Kids, “Things Get Shaky EP”

Artist: The Keystone Kids

Album: Things Get Shaky

Label: Deep Elm Records

RIYL: The Postal Service, Stars, Death Cab For Cutie, Public Radio, Rilo Kiley

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music Review: The End of America – Steep Bay

Artist: The End of America
Album: Steep Cove
Label: Forest Park Recordings

Rating:  

It’s easy to get jaded with music these days. Most of the mainstream music today is over-produced, soulless, brainless, and boring. However, there are still many bands out there creating genuine art, which (if discovered) can go on to becoming timeless and inspire generations of aspiring musicians. These are the bands I seek out. They’re hard to find, but now and then you discover a gem that needs to be shared immediately. The End of America is one of those bands. Their new album, Steep Bay, is a breath of fresh air in a stale landscape of generic music.

Recorded over one week in a remote cabin on Schroon Lake, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, Steep Bay has an energy and honesty that can’t be re-created in a studio. They recorded by a campfire under the stars, on the porch, out in the woods. It’s amazing what 2 microphones in a 100% desolate area can pick up. 9 songs were recorded over and over, and the best takes (flaws and all) make up the album Steep Bay.

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Movie Review: Four Boxes

*This review was originally posted on BrutalAsHell.com, but was pulled and replaced with more of a well-thought out and better written review.  I stand by this review, however, as more thought was put into my review than was put into this pile of crap that is the film Four Boxes.

DVD Review: Four Boxes (2009)
Directed by: Wyatt McDill
Starring: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen
Review by: Sean Duregger

Some movies are “so-bad-they’re-enjoyable-with-alcohol”.  Some movies are just plain bad and annoying.  Four Boxes isn’t enjoyable even with vast amounts of alcohol, believe me, I tried.  I’d compare this to a Horror version of The Room, but The Room is actually enjoyable on a certain level, hell it even had more gore.  Maybe this should have been called Four Rooms? Oh wait, a far superior movie already has that title. From absolutely horrible dialogue to atrocious pacing, Four Rooms is a total piece of shit and a waste of time.

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Blu Ray Review: Robin Hood – Unrated Director’s Cut

The Film  || Video || Audio

Extras || Replay || Overall Rating:  

THE FILM

Ridley Scott’s deconstruction of the Robin Hood mythos and restructuring of the legend into a fully realized story was a gutsy move by the director.  Judging by word of mouth and critical reviews, the masses went in to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood expecting something completely different.  The film’s marketing and highly deceptive trailers told us we were going to get the standard “gritty version” of the tale we’re all familiar with.  However, we were shown the exact opposite. 

Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is a “prequel” of sorts.  This is the first part of a larger story.  Hence, Universal’s choice to name this film Robin Hood is extremely misleading to the standard movie goer.  This isn’t the story of “Robin of The Hood”.  This is the story of Robin Longstride, the man who would one day be known as Robin of The Hood.  This is a shame, because without pretenses, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is an epic medieval tale on the grandest scale very much worth your time.

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