As Austin outfit The Sword would tell it, it’s a good time to be a heavy metal band. “People are finally trying some different stuff in heavy metal and hard rock,” frontman J.D. Cronise said. “All too often, bands rely on the traditional way … but traditional metal is funny to me because it’s a […]
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Grave secrets
Without the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, Calgon detergent and Fred Rogers’ tonsils, Night of the Living Dead would not exist. And without Night of the Living Dead, there would be no The Walking Dead, no World War Z, no entire cottage industry centered around those “all messed-up” ghouls who crave and dine […]
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The Spirit
Former Flash Gordon Sam Jones plays another Sunday-funnies superstar as The Spirit, the crime fighter formerly known as square-jawed, straight-and-narrow cop Denny Colt. When he’s shot by a baddie and presumed dead, Denny takes advantage of the situation by donning the teeny-tiniest of blue masks to disguise his identity as The Spirit, who sets about […]
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Abducted
But crap happens, and while being all cute and cuddly in L.A.’s famed Griffith Park, the happy couple is darted from afar and drugged into a state of unconsciousness. They awake in a dingy cell looking not unlike the basement from the original Saw. Something’s up and yet, something else is up, because whoever their […]
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Day of the Dead
By the time 1985 rolled around, Romero had made one other Dead film: the brilliant Dawn of the Dead. Other countries, especially Italy and Spain, turned zombie movies into virtual cash machines and zombies, for the first time, were everywhere. So there was great anticipation for Day of the Dead, Romero’s third film in what […]
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Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Unlike its predecessors, Bad Grandpa attempts the franchise’s most daring stunt of all: telling a story. But only barely; while the narrative here serves its purpose — as a framework for a succession of Borat-style bad-taste bits — it is as minimal as allowed. That it also is the funniest film of the year (until […]
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Resolution
Resembling Wolfman Jack as a hobo, Chris refuses. With the help of a taser and handcuffs that attach to a pipe running along the exposed wall, Michael puts Chris on an involuntary, seven-day detox. As his friend experiences withdrawal, Michael comes across some tweakers and members of a religious fringe group, but these weird people […]
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Slaid, Slaid songs
Roots rocker Slaid Cleaves’ influences are all of the usual suspects expected from someone of his songwriting ilk: Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen. But it was a youthful listen to one of his father’s Hank Williams albums that set Cleaves on his songwriting path. “I listened to those lonesome, sad songs, and it […]
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Brian Haas / Matt Chamberlain — Frames
That an artist would become enamored with divination after moving to the sprawling, mountain-laden countryside on the outskirts of Santa Fe, N.M., makes perfect sense. So, too, does Frames. While not improvised, per se, the album does toe the line between boundlessness and structure. A methodically composed exercise through the tempered scale, Frames clocks in […]
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East meets West
Seattle’s Rose Windows cram as much into the music as they do players on stage. The seven-piece psychedelic rock outfit has concocted a wholly unique swirl of American classic rock, British prog and psychedelia with ready dabbles into Persian, Indian and Eastern European sounds, making for a worldly musical experience like few others that came […]