‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ movie review (Baltimore Citypaper)

For such an inelegant lug of a hero, Hellboy sure does inspire Guillermo del Toro to create some baroque and near-magical settings for him. Whether it’s a degenerate bazaar that’s half Diagon Alley and half Mos Eisley or Hellboy’s beautifully rendered foes–from a monstrous forest god and tiny demonic “tooth fairies” to the titular army of Rube Goldberg killing machines–the sequel to del Toro’s 2004 Hellboy may not live up to its predecessor’s level of wit, but it more than matches the original’s visual flair. Del Toro again affords plenty of space for Ron Perlman’s dry, guileless comic delivery as the titular character, but Hellboy’s one-liners and “flawed” character traits are very nearly subsumed in all the filigreed set dressings and CGI effects. The thing that made the first Hellboy such a joy was the way del Toro balanced the questionable personality of a funny and brave but generally unlikable character with the idea that there’s a transcendent, invisible world where good and evil fight right underneath our noses. That idea is sharpened to the point of silliness in Hellboy II, but it hardly matters, as del Toro delivers a movie that breezily manages to be as funny and humane as Iron Man but with far more visual imagination.

First appeared July 16, 2008 in Baltimore Citypaper.

Sonic Youth: Master-Dik EP and J’Accuse Ted Hughes EP CD review (Blurt)

These two EPs provide an interesting insight into the band’s legacy. In the case of the reissue of 1987’s Master-Dik, one is reminded of how much venom Thurston & Co. once engendered; the MRR screed by Ben Weasel that was reprinted in the original edition reappears, sellout comparisons to REO Speedwagon intact, but it’s the Sun Ra/Sonny Sharrock name-drops within the songs that refocus just how this rock band’s avant-dilettantism was frowned upon by jazz snobs and prog-rock aficionados.

In the case of J’Accuse Ted Hughes – a vinyl-only outing consisting of two tracks recorded in 2001 – Sonic Youth is now an established legacy act, improv credentials confirmed, and fully emboldened to embark upon 20-minute journeys into restless space-jams. Ironically, it’s the Master-Dik EP that’s the bolder of the two. After a more beatbox-y version of the Sister track is laid down, and a cover of “Beat on the Brat” is rushed through, the band embarks upon a cut-and-paste collage that’s pretentious, immature and completely good-natured. In contrast, the sprawling noisemospherics on the newer EP are beautiful improvisations that are completely humor-free.

Standout Tracks: “Beat on the Brat” (Master-Dik), “Agnes B Musique” (J’Accuse Ted Hughes)

First appeared July 2008 at Blurt.

Buy Master-Dik at Amazon.com.

Buy J’Accuse Ted Hughes at Amazon.com.

Patti Smith feature/review of ‘The Coral Sea’ (Blurt)

2008 is shaping up to be a banner year of sorts of Patti Smith. Not that she needs banners, parades, or the like, of course. But just in the first six months she’s already been the subject of three books, one about her first album (33 1/3’s Horses, by Philip Shaw, currently reviewed in BLURT’s books section), one a career overview/analysis (Praeger’s The Words and Music of Patti Smith, by Joe Tarr), and one a paperback edition of her Auguries of Innocence poetry book (Ecco Press). There are two more volumes due this year as well: Land 250, a collection of her photography being published to commemorate a Smith exhibition which ran March 28 – June 22 at the Fondation Cartier Pour L’Art Contemporain in Paris; and Patti Smith: Dream of Life, a photography book by filmmaker Steven Sebring intended to serve as a companion piece to his documentary of the same name.

Sebring’s film was recently featured at the Philadelphia and Sundance Film Festivals (it won an award for cinematography at the latter) and will premiere at New York City’s Film Forum. The first officially sanctioned Smith documentary, it’s scheduled to run from August 6 to August 19, and it clearly marks a cinematic arrival of sorts for Smith — not that she needs an arrival, introduction or the like, of course. (BLURT readers can get a taste of it by viewing the trailer in our Video Section.) Perhaps even more significant is the fact that on May 16, Smith was honored by Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, granting her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in recognition of her success in the fields of music, literature and art.

Meanwhile, there’s this new double-CD that arrives in stores next week, a collaboration between Smith and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. It’s the latest entry in Smith’s ever-expanding CV, although it probably won’t provoke fan excitement along the levels of, say, Horses or the Sebring film. Indeed, there’s a nagging sense listening to The Coral Sea (PASK) that it should be … well, better. The knot of anticipation collaboration like this evokes is really almost ridiculous. Smith. Shields. A poetic homage to Robert Mapplethorpe. Two separate, hour-long performances. This, this meeting between the great 20th century punk poetess and the deified master of postpunk guitar atmospherics, it should transport me, yes?

Sadly, it does not. It’s through no fault of Smith or Shields, though. This two-disc presentation of two live performances of Smith’s “The Coral Sea” (one from 2005, one from 2006; neither substantially different in tone from the other) finds the both of them digging deep into their artistic hearts to deliver the goods. Smith’s emotional state is predictably tense, empathetic and defiant. Shields’ guitar work is surprisingly emotional and gently improvisational.

Yet, in much the same way that the book is always better than the movie, the Loveless better than the live show, The Coral Sea is ultimately a failure of format. Leafing through the open, airy pages of Smith’s 1996 book, you get a sense of the epic scope of this poem that tells of a metaphorical journey, but the words are also lent an additional, individual weight. There’s no distraction of sound, no inflection of voice to impart unnecessary and inappropriate context. When listening to The Coral Sea – rather than reading it – one is continually easing into Smith’s vocal rhythm or getting lost in the gelatinous noise emanating from Smith’s guitars. That’s not to say that these aren’t effective performances. They are, indeed. It’s just that this piece of poetry is both delicate and dense and hearing it is a totally different (and somewhat disorienting) experience than reading it.

[Note: the PASK label is an imprint created by Smith and Shields, but at present there is no PASK website. Patti Smith’s official site is at www.pattismith.net and Shields is via the My Bloody Valentine site, www.mybloodyvalentine.net.]

[Photo Credit of Smith and Shields: Matia Zopellaro/RETNA]

First appeared July 2, 2008 at Blurt!.

Buy The Coral Sea at Amazon.com.

Frontiers: A Tribute to Journey show preview (Orlando Weekly)

In their search for a new lead singer, the members of the current Steve Perry–less Journey extended an offer to Jeremey Hunsicker, frontman of Journey tribute band Frontiers. Despite being praised by Neal Schon as a dead ringer for Steve Perry, Hunsicker turned down the offer from his idols in order to be a dad. Which is admirable on a whole lot of levels. When fronting a tribute band, if you can say that you rebuffed an offer from the band to which you pay tribute (and be able to credibly laugh off that Filipino YouTube guy who finally got the gig) … well, that’s a kick in the pants, innit? Hunsicker somehow got a writing credit on the real Journey’s new Wal-Mart-only album, but he gets far more enjoyment out of filling clubs with his sound-alike (if not look-alike) act. In a twisted way, that may make Frontiers the coolest cover band around.

First appeared July 9, 2008 in Orlando Weekly.

Alkaline Trio show preview (Orlando Weekly)

As Alkaline Trio has moved further and further away from their early days as the leaders of the drunk-and-loud flank of the eyeliner-emo brigade, they’ve turned off both their disaffected teenage fan base and the permanently adolescent grown-ups who dug their highly melodic spin. Alkaline’s 2005 album, Crimson, contained gasping greatness; enough of their early snarl was intact, making it harder to notice that the soaring, arena-ready melodies that long ago were but an ironic hint have become the band’s stylistic centerpiece. Crimson was a fork in the road, after which the band could have continued on a path of well-crafted, melodic punk dripping with sarcasm and dark rage, or embarked upon My Chemical Romance–style punk-rock pantomime. With this month’s Agony & Irony – produced by Josh Abraham (Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park) and released on Epic Records – they’ve obviously chosen the latter. But to what end? They may have sold out, but they’re gonna have trouble cashing the check.

First appeared July 17, 2008 in Orlando Weekly.

Niyaz: Nine Heavens CD review (Orlando Weekly)

L.A.-based ethno-techno group Niyaz garnered considerable acclaim for their 2005 self-titled debut. Its fusion of chilled, exploratory beats (courtesy of Grammy-nominated producer-remixer Carmen Rizzo), intricate song craft (thanks to Iranian rocker Loga Ramin Torkian) and the richly textured, polyglot vocals of Iranian-Indian singer Azam Ali made for beguiling listening that was mellow without being passive and exotic without being condescending. The balance of Ali’s Urdu-inspired lyricism and Rizzo’s contemporary electronica garnered most of the attention, but the group’s well-arranged songs were the real key to the solidity of the album.

On Nine Heavens, Niyaz sets out to prove that point. Presented as a two-disc set, the album boldly delivers nine “electronic” tracks on the first CD and eight “acoustic” versions on the second. The reason for the scare quotes? Because none of the songs on the first disc are purely techno-based; they benefit mightily from the warm, organic sound that is Niyaz’s hallmark. Likewise, the cuts on the second disc are far from the simple, sparse voice-and-guitar approach commonly associated with acoustic songs. In fact, as lovely and sonically rich as the first disc is – particularly the overwhelming “Ishq” – it’s the homespun arrangement and instrumentation on the second disc that makes Nine Heavens spectacular.

With a panoply of Middle Eastern and South Asian instruments at work in tandem with strong percussion, the absence of Rizzo’s electronic flourishes is hardly noticeable; the cuts still ebb and flow with rhythmic virtuosity. With the real instruments front and center, the vibe is more insistent and less ambient, similar to Terry Hall’s semi-electronic experiments with Turkish sounds.

For a group with their reputation cemented, Niyaz took a risk with this second disc, but it paid off beautifully. Hopefully, Nine Heavens will stand as a fork in their discography, and their future releases will continue down this path.

First appeared July 17, 2008 in Orlando Weekly.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.

‘Dalí in New York’ DVD review (Detroit Metrotimes)

This 1965 film by Jack Bond comes across as the height of casual salon-borne iconography. Brimming with proto-psychedelic flourishes and post-Beat Generation cool, Dalí in New York is a portrait of the surrealist at the peak of his popularity, not to mention self-assuredness. Dalí is supremely aware of his image as an artistic provocateur and seems determined in the film’s several “interview” sessions (which are more like charged roundtables where the artist swats down various criticisms and misinterpretations of his work) to make good on his reputation as a weirdo. The painter’s canvases during this period shared this self-aware sense of “weirdness,” and it’s interesting that most of the works Bond chooses to show throughout Dalí in New York are from the previous decades. Dalí by this point is much more concerned with a sort of postmodern presentation of himself, and the various pieces of performance art he undertakes in the film — lip-kissing Michaelangelo’s David, covering himself in dollar bills and ants — are more the actions of an aging huckster than a paradigm-smashing visionary. It’s never clear if Bond himself was in on the joke, or simply enraptured by proximity to Dalí, but the film that he created with Dalí’s cooperation does as much to lionize its subject as it does to ridicule it. Which is probably something Dalí would have heartily approved of.

First appeared July 10, 2008 in Detroit Metrotimes.

Buy this DVD at Amazon.com

Electric President feature/Q&A (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)

Sleep Well, the new album by Electric President, finds the Jacksonville duo of Ben Cooper and Alex Kane expanding on the indie-pop/electronica vibe that won over fans and critics two years ago on their self-titled debut. With a more refined palette of sounds and a more intuitively pop-minded vibe this time around, the rather ubiquitous Postal Service comparisons should be sloughed off easily. Though Sleep Well was recorded in much the same way as EP’s 2006 album — in a storage shed in Cooper’s backyard — it still displays a much more refined sound. Cooper recently spoke with New Times about the process behind the album.

New Times: Would you say that there’s been any great impact on your sound from having recorded in your backyard rather than your bedroom?

Cooper: I’m sure recording in the backyard has had its effect, but I can’t say exactly how. I’ve been doing it regularly for the past six years, so it’s hard to pick out the details anymore. Probably the most significant impact is that it forces me to record in the middle of the night, due to traffic. The shed is close to the road, so I have to wait until the cars die down before I can do any tracking.

The new album seems more mature-sounding — more textural and more fully formed — than the last. Is that because more time was spent making it or because the two of you have gotten better at what you’re doing?

I’d say both. We didn’t rush things at all. Where we spent seven or eight months writing and recording the first record, we spent 13 months on this one. But beyond time, the sound of this record was much more deliberate. On the first one, we were taking acoustic songs and chopping them up in computers. Lots of the work was done after the mics were put away. This new record was much less manipulated. The songs were just written that way, and there was a much stronger idea of the sound from the beginning and of how everything would fit together in the end.

Have you thought about utilizing more musicians when you play live?

We’re in the process of doing that at the moment. We found a drummer recently, and he’s amazing, and my brother is going to play keyboards/piano with us as well. We’ve begun rehearsing, and we’re working out ways to translate the songs to a live setting. I don’t know when we’ll be able to tour, as Alex is in school full-time, but we should know within the next month or so.

First appeared July 10, 2008 in Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

Buy Sleep Well at Amazon.com.

G.B.H. show preview (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)

It’s ironic, of course, that consistency, longevity, and predictability have come to be the hallmarks of “true punk,” but that’s where we are more than three decades after Johnny Rotten blew his nose all over things. As Jello Biafra recently sang, there’s all these bands singing their “hits from the good old days about how bad the good old days were.” G.B.H. is right there, shouting down the culture of early-’80s Britain while we raise our fists in nostalgic rage, trying to get into a lather remembering mean ol’ Maggie Thatcher. It’s a cool trick, but it wouldn’t succeed were it not for the undeniable power of the hard-charging punk style that G.B.H. and their UK82 peers pioneered. That bleak, remorseless heaviness was proto-metallic in its brutality and all but nihilistic in its outlook. Although the memories and the whole “living legend” thing may be a solid enough reason for the old punks to pull on their leathers and check out the show, G.B.H. still defines true-school punk so precisely that its new, younger audience loves the band not for the old times but for the fact that its approach is timeless in capturing the spiritual tenor of disaffected youth.

First appeared July 17, 2008 in Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

Otis Redding: Otis Blue CD review (Stomp and Stammer)

It takes a whole lot of doin’ to turn a 35-minute album into a double-CD collector’s edition, but if the folks at Rhino can do it with It’s A Shame About Ray, they sure as hell are going to do it right with Otis Blue. Despite the late-night sweet-soul vibe promised by the title and cover art, Otis Redding’s phenomenal third album is a barnstorming affair, and that effect is brought to the fore by the powerful remastering job. Hits like “Respect,” “Shake” and “Satisfaction” still hold up despite overplaying (and an omnipresence here; this edition features no less than three versions of each), but, wow, how quickly one forgets the gut-wrenching vibe Otis put onto “Change Gonna Come” and “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” This set includes both the mono and stereo versions of the original 1965 album, along with two B-sides, live takes (from the Whisky A Go Go in 1966 and Europe in 1967), and completist bait like the mono mix of the stereo album version of two songs

First appeared July 2008 in Stomp and Stammer.

Buy this CD at Amazon.com.