For most Americans (especially the shiny, young generation which uses the films of Wes Anderson as gateways to the hidden world of art houses), Seu Jorge is primarily thought of as the Brazilian man who did those Bowie covers. And while several of those covers – especially “Rebel, Rebel” – are worth the hype and attention given to them, it’s still a shame that Jorge’s original music isn’t noticed as much as it should be. Perhaps it’s because most music listeners always gravitate …

This DVD made me throw up a little in my mouth when I watched it. I know. I know. Happy Mondays have this huge cult following; I’ve even done research on it to see how there could possibly be more than two people who admire this music and this “band” legitimately. But it’s true. They’re out there. I don’t understand the music, I don’t see any talent, or hear any for that matter, and I’m awestruck that these musicians can actually sell tickets to …

It’s a good time to be a music video fan with a DVD player. Seems like every time I look around, there’s a new video compilation to snatch, and for kids like me who have an ample amount of grainy little MPEGs on their computers, usually encoded by god knows who and probably obtained from a junk server of dubious legality, it’s nice to upgrade.
The present is also a wise time to release a DVD of definitive Wu-Tang Clan videos: ODB’s death has …

David Markey is not a film director. He is the kid down the street who is always trashing the neighborhood and chasing his clown-masked friends with a Super 8 video camera. He is the Southern California boy who was surrounded by moviemaking as a child, and who couldn’t think of any other way to have fun during the long, balmy summers. Cut Shorts, a compilation of Markey’s work, reeks of amateurism and mindlessness; but despite this (or because of it), it still captures the …

I was helping run the sound at a small club outside of Houston when I first heard. In between sets, I spun one of my favorite Clash records, and some young punk kid shot me a stupid thumbs up. “Cool tribute,” he said after coming over. I gave him a look that said, “What the hell are you talking about?” I guess he figured it out, because then he said, “Didn’t you hear? Joe Strummer died last night.”
For guys my age, Joe Strummer was more …

Anarchism is, perhaps, the world’s most misunderstood and most frequently misinterpreted political philosophy. Throughout American history, anarchists have been persecuted at every possible opportunity. Often scapegoats for a nation enduring a crisis, they have been jailed, deported, and, in the case of the legendary Sacco and Vanzetti, executed for crimes they did not commit. It is true that other radical groups endured similar fates, especially Communists. Yet, while most high school students in the United States are made at least somewhat familiar …

Conventional wisdom says that the ’80s weren’t kind to rock. For the most part, that’s a bit of an exaggeration; any decade which managed to yield classic albums like Fire of Love, Rain Dogs, Imperial Bedroom and Surfer Rosa couldn’t be all bad. What the ’80s really weren’t kind to, however, was Rock with a capital “R”: those graying, fading superstars who had seemed so hip and dangerous in the 1970s, only to be revealed ten years later as charlatans in banana-yellow slacks. …

There’s much more excitement to watching a short film than a long film: while a longer film has plenty of time to succeed or fail, the shorter film is like a burst of lightning. Either it perfectly strikes ground, leaving a substantial mark, or it flutters through the sky inconsequentially: it may look pretty, but few actually notice it. So where does David Branin’s Shoot-Out stand in this meteorological metaphor?
In terms of cinematography and direction, Shoot-Out truly does leave its mark. Never before …

These days, let’s face it, an original rock’n’roll story is harder to come by than ever. We’ve heard ‘em all by now; if VH1′s Behind the Music and E!’s True Hollywood Story didn’t get to our heroes first, then they’ve been recycled and repackaged by rock’s own mythmaking cults, from Hendrix, Dylan and the Beatles to Kurt Cobain, Johnny Thunders and the Velvet Underground. Which is precisely why Greg Whiteley’s New York Doll — a documentary that tells the heretofore untold story of …

I have long held the opinion that with every album a band releases, there should be change, evolution, and growth. It’s for this reason that there’s a lot of people out there who would probably consider me to be a punk rock heretic; but the fact of the matter is, when it comes to Southern California’s Bad Religion, I just prefer the newer stuff to the old. This isn’t to say that I can’t appreciate their classics, but with every album there’s a noticeable …