It’s only Wednesday, and this week has already brought two '90s punk stalwarts back from retirement. Both At the Drive-In and Refused will play this year’s Coachella, prompting many gray-bearded music journalists to reinsert their plugs. Bands here in D.C. are certainly not immune to the musical seven-year itch, but one thing we lack is [...]
HO-HO-WHO?: Toronto's Fucked Up, the often unprintable critical darlings who have dominated year-end best-of-lists with the audacious punk epic David Comes to Life.
YEAR OF THE REINDEER: Fucked Up is no stranger to the Christmas single, proving that the ferocious band has a heart—this year's split 7-inch with Sloan will benefit COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program and the [...]
HO-HO-WHO: Scott Weiland has been a staple of modern rock radio for the better part of two decades, first with Stone Temple Pilots and then in the Slash-aided supergroup Velvet Revolver. In a move both baffling and easily rationalized (“Bowie did it, man”), Weiland has become the latest grunge-era crooner to try his hand at [...]
HO HO WHO: She: doe-eyed manic pixie dream girl whose new Fox sitcom re-ushered "adorkable" into the cultural lexicon. Him: earnest singer-songwriter on Merge Records whose lo-fi ditties double as car-advertisement jingles. Together, they are She & Him, whose new album, A Very She & Him Christmas, is guaranteed to soundtrack every ugly Christmas sweater [...]
At this year's Sundance Film Festival, Calvin Lee Reader's The Oregonian got the type of reception horror fans savor: massive walkouts. In a genre where repellent imagery is always welcome—mouth to anus, anyone?–this reaction is often touted as a badge of honor, a slab of red meat to true believers akin to Republican Presidential hopefuls calling Social Security “a Ponzi [...]
Showcase 9 has it all: a little bit of action, a dash of romance, and some comedy, both intentional and otherwise. The most discernible thread running throughout is a faint multicultural flair, and yet we're still subjected to another climactic prom night where the unsuspecting nerd asks the hottie to wear [...]
There's a certain alchemy to a good short film. Marrying a novel conceit with sharp dialogue and clear execution all within 20minutes is far more difficult than generally acknowledged. Keeping with the tradition of many of the festival's past showcases, this year's Showcase manages to consistently avoid all three criteria, with a few bright [...]
Alongside bands like Polvo and Superchunk, Chapel Hill, N.C.’s Archers of Loaf helped popularize a geo-specific sound during the early '90s that blended buzzy guitars with a healthy dose of melody. It’s a formula that’s since become common in indie rock, but you rarely hear it replicated with the Archers of Loaf same spark. It [...]
In the mid-aughts, it felt like every Tom, Dick, or Harriet who had ever picked up a guitar had a biopic bestowed upon them— Ray Charles (Ray), Joy Division's Ian Curtis (Control), and even California punk band The Germs (What We Do is Secret). That Bob Dylan’s story would make it to the big screen [...]
Toward the end of You Won't Miss Me, Ry Russo-Young’s affecting case study of an exasperating New York scenester that is out this week on DVD, we catch a glimpse of an unorthodox audition. As the squirrelly director engages a room brimming with ambitious misanthropes, one of them is revealed to be Greta Gerwig (the DIY [...]
