The final product is ’90s rock in Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, something that fans of Taddy Porter and Kings of Leon will appreciate. Much like The Avengers, each member is given the chance to play the hero over the course of the 10-track effort. Singer Adam Banner lets his pipes roar in opener “Get […]
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So and so good
Credit: Stephanie Bassos When Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s emerged in the mid-2000s with the brilliant chamber-pop record The Dust of Retreat, major labels saw the band as the next Arcade Fire, The Shins or The Decemberists. Too bad chief songwriter and lead singer Richard Edwards never planned on sticking to one sound, […]
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To the ’core
Credit: Ross Adams Alex Barnard loves the hardcore scene, its DIY aesthetic and underground culture, but he aspired to play for rooms with more than a dozen people in them. He found like-minded, longtime Oklahoma City musicians in Daniel Weaver, Billy Reid and James Hammontree; together, they formed Chud. “All of us have played in […]
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Mutant Girls Squad
It’s told “relay”-style, with one of three directors each taking on a different chapter, although you can’t really tell: Tak Sakaguchi, (Yakuza Weapon), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Helldriver) and Noboru Iguchi (Karate-Robo Zaborgar). That three cooks are stirring the pot matters as much as the plot, which is minimal — at least a lucid one. Just know […]
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Racing Dreams
It’s not the go-kart you once rode up and down your driveway. These no-suspension, sponsor-stickered mini stock cars reach speeds of 80 miles per hour as they circle the track, their drivers’ rears a mere inch off the ground. “What kind of parents would let their kids go that fast when they’re not even old […]
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Act of Valor
SOC Dave (whoever he may be) serves as our marble-mouthed narrator and member of the team led by Lt. Rorke (also whoever he may be). Partly shot in Bruckheimer burnt orange, their missions take them around the globe, first to rescue a comely CIA agent (Roselyn Sanchez, The Game Plan, Rush Hour 2) who’s been […]
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Perfect Sense
Spread director David Mackenzie’s movie imagines a new disease in which victims inexplicably become overwhelmed with grief, then lose their sense of smell entirely. While not thought to be contagious, the threat is so unfamiliar that the public overreacts, anyway. Meeting in the midst of this madness are epidemiologist Susan (Eva Green, Dark Shadows, Cracks, […]
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You hear?
Credit: The Ely Brothers Being an experimental rock act, mewithoutYou is no stranger to risk. When writing and recording its fourth album, 2009’s It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright, the band chose to ditch its signature heavy riffs for something that more closely resembled Modest Mouse or Bright Eyes […]
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Dial H for Hero
At 42, Scott Lucas may be getting older, but he’s not giving up on music. In fact, he’s even more committed. As half of the Chicago rock duo Local H (“Bound to the Floor”), Lucas evidently found one band’s full slate of touring and recording as not enough, so he struck up a solo project, […]
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Sultan of sting
Credit: Ben Pobjoy Mark Sultan has been playing garage rock well before it was in vogue. For 23 years, the Canadian has plugged away either as a solo musician (often under the moniker BBQ) or a member of The Spaceshits, Les Sexareenos, Almighty Defenders and, most notoriously, The King Khan & BBQ Show. Through that […]