Interscope Surely no one could’ve predicted the force with which ska-pop sprite Gwen Stefani’s 2004’s solo debut, “Love.Angel.Music.Baby.” would hit, loaded as it was with Eighties-shaded tunes, a devastating sense of style and a chart-smashing monster known as “Hollaback Girl.” Two years later, Stefani is already dropping “The Sweet Escape,” her erratic sophomore effort. Whereas […]
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Frank Sinatra-Vegas
Rhino/Reprise Some things just go well together: peanut butter and jelly, spring and baseball, Frank Sinatra and Las Vegas. The Chairman of the Board arguably was never more at home than prowling the stages of Sin City nightclubs, dishing out snappy patter and electric readings of signature tunes like “Fly Me to the Moon” and […]
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Stanton Moore-III
Telarc International I can’t say New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore’s music makes me want to jump and scream for joy, but the man certainly lays down some solid grooves. Whether it’s with his other bands “? Galactic or Garage a Trois “? or on a solo effort, Moore is one of a few musicians on […]
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Keeping Up with the Steins
ess to read it flawlessly with a face full of braces and in front of relatives who claim to know you. I should know: I survived one. It is a tradition ripe for satire, as evidenced in “Keeping Up with the Steins.” The movie follows Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) as he prepares for his big […]
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Oldboy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition
2003/2006 Chan-wook Park’s “Oldboy” is brutally compelling cinema. The weak of stomach need not apply “? between consumption of live octopi and dentistry via hammer, it’s a film that gleefully traffics in extreme imagery. A blend of swooning romance, grisly violence and blood-soaked revenge, it’s also a film with a killer conceit (a man is […]
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Centro matic-Fort Recovery
Misra Records The primary goal for every band is to distinguish a new record from its previous work and all the other acts in its corner of music. It did not bode well for Centro-matic’s “Fort Recovery” that, after several listens, I still had to check my CD player to remind myself who I was […]
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See No Evil
2006 Hollywood’s had much worse ideas than casting a WWE wrestler as a mute serial killer with a head full of flies. And that very film, the early-summer slasher “See No Evil,” isn’t bad at all for horror fans seeking a down-and-dirty, old-school gorefest. Kane (n
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Mickey Avalon-Self Titled
MySpace Records Nothing good can come of this MySpace Records, I’m convinced. Although the social Web site has been a boon to several indie bands, the idea of pulling unsigned talent from its cesspool and giving them a major-record deal is a dangerous one, judging solely from the no-talent behind its first single-artist release: Mickey […]
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Reservoir Dogs: 15th Anniversary Edition
1992/2006 Holding the latest incarnation of “Reservoir Dogs” in one’s hands, two questions arise: 1) How many DVD releases does this movie need? and 2) Can DVD packaging get any cooler? Both merit asking, since this release is one year premature for the post-heist film’s 15th anniversary, and its two discs come packaged like […]
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Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume Four
2006 Like mainlining monster doses of childhood nostalgia, these four-disc blasts of Saturday-morning anarchy keep steadily trickling forth from Warner Brothers, who, thankfully, have the good sense not to gloss over some of the trickier and less politically correct elements that abound in these Merry Melodies. Cleaned up and packed into easily digestible 90-minute […]